[TheGeekGuy]

1. Heat - This MacBook is no hotter than my old PowerBook G4 (1.67GHz, 256MB VideoRAM, 1.5GB RAM, 80GB 7200RPM HardDrive)
2. Screen - Much, much brighter but as a result the light sensors for the keyboard can be fooled into to thinking it is lighter than it is.
3. Speed - It is VERY fast. Quick boot up. Fast respose even in older programs
4. Issue - Rosetta does a good job, but any program that has preferences accessed through System Prefs is nerfed.
5. No Noise - Haven't had issue with buzzing, etc
6. Other Peoples Reactions - My wife's was the funniest, "You got a new PowerBook..I didn't notice". I suppose it does kinda look the same as the old one to the untrained eye.

Hope this helps someone.

[jeebus]

Thanks for the info. Are you sure your old Powerbook had 256 MB of VRAM though? As far as I know the powerbooks only went up to 128 MB and the only Apple laptop to have 256 MB is the MacBook Pro. Was this a CTO option for your powerbook?

[TheGeekGuy]

The latest (dearly departed) PowerBook had the option for the 256MB Video Card (ATI Radeon) so that it could drive the 30" CinemaDisplay.

[jeebus]

Mmm no offense but actually the latest (dearly departed) Powerbook came standard with dual link DVI functionality with the 128 MB card. There was no 256 MB option. Ever. I believe you are confusing it with the powerbooks from 2 revisions ago, where they came with a 64 MB card standard, and for only like $80 you could upgrade them to a 128 MB card with dual link DVI functionality (deal of the century IMO). The MacBook Pro is the only laptop Apple has ever shipped that has 256 MB of VRAM. Even if you go to the online store now and choose the 17 inch and try to upgrade the vid card, you will see that there is no option for that, 128 MB is the max. Unless this has been available before and Apple arbitrarily took it away (which I doubt).

If you don't believe me run system profiler and check how much VRAM your powerbook has. I think you'll be surprised.

If I'm wrong then I'm a total asshole and I'm sorry.

[magicbbird]

Originally Posted by TheGeekGuy

6. Other Peoples Reactions - My wife's was the funniest, "You got a new PowerBook..I didn't notice". I suppose it does kinda look the same as the old one to the untrained eye.

Hope this helps someone.

This is certainly HELPFUL to me so my wife won't notice I upgrade AGAIN !!!

[TheGeekGuy]

D'Oh! Yes, you're right, it's 128MB, not 256MB. Sorry for the confusion.

[darcybaston]

Originally Posted by TheGeekGuy

My wife's was the funniest, "You got a new PowerBook..I didn't notice".

Maybe my wife Andrea and I don't have as much money, but there's no way either of us could make a $2k+ purchase and not have the other notice.

[TheGeekGuy]

What she meant was it looked like the previous PowerBook I owned (and still do). As for the cost, all things are relative. I am a Network and Systems Administrator and I run my own business so the $3200 I spent is:

a) Worth every penny
b) Tax deductable

[darcybaston]

I hope you know I was just teasing with your wording?

It's definitely worth every penny, just as my DC 2GHz tower and my wife's soon to arrive MBP are.

[ghettochild]

Originally Posted by TheGeekGuy

What she meant was it looked like the previous PowerBook I owned (and still do). As for the cost, all things are relative. I am a Network and Systems Administrator and I run my own business so the $3200 I spent is:

a) Worth every penny
b) Tax deductable

$3k+ for a laptop is way out of line IMO- let alone ordering such an expensive machine w/o any reviews yet.

just my opinion though.

[TheGeekGuy]

I understand that some might find the amount of money excessive, but I need to stay ahead of the curve in my chosen profession. While I will not suggest that any of my clients or place of work buy a MBP right now (that will change I'm sure), I needed to evaluate the potential ups and downs (no Pro Apps...Blazing speed, etc).

And as I said, it's tax deductable.

[venom600]

I am having issues with Rosetta as well. While applications like Safari and QT Player are native, their plugins aren't. So in order to view stuff like WMV and Real video in browser, I have to run Safari in Rosetta. Not a huge deal, but it is a little annoying.

[Dave Hagan]

I am getting the 1.83GHz model with a 7,200 RPM drive by 10:30 A.M. on Tuesday, according to my FedEx tracking number. After reading all of the negative reports both here and over at the Apple Discussions, I had to go to The Apple Store in Hingham, MA to check it out firsthand before I even open the box come Tuesday.

The model I played with at The Apple Store was the 2.0GHz MacBook Pro with 1GB RAM, and probably the standard 5,400 RPM 100GB SATA hard drive. It was running build 8G1454 of Mac OS X 10.4.5.

My thoughts, opinions, and impressions...

1. The maximum angle the MacBook Pro display can open is an inherent design flaw, but a minor one at that. It's not a deal breaker and not really evident unless you are looking for it like I was. It definitely didn't crimp my style as I stood there playing with it. I would say the 17-inch PowerBook can open approximately 10° more than the MacBook Pro.

2. The display itself is beautiful. It's bright and crisp. It really puts to shame all of the PowerBooks that sit around it. The PowerBook displays look embarrassingly dark even at their brightest setting. I didn't notice any uneven illumination in the MacBook Pro, as has been reported. There are no biases that I could see, as white looked pure white — and not a variation or bias to red or blue (as I have first-hand experience with in the PowerBooks).

3. According to the Terminal, The MacBook Pro had an uptime of approximately 2 1/2 hours, but it was probably restarted at that time, and has been on all day. The MacBook Pro was warm to the touch, but not hot. It was as warm as the 17-inch PowerBook sitting to its right. It was cooler in certain areas, but underneath was pretty much the same as the top.

4. Hum, whine, buzz...Although the ambiance of the store (music and customers talking) was not great for this test, I could not hear any sort of hum, whine, or buzz when I put my ear down toward the display, and then to the keyboard. I hope that this not something I will be afflicted with when my arrives by Tuesday.

5. It is fast. All of the Apple apps open quickly; within a bounce. I opened a few of the high definition movies that Apple has put in the Movies folder. In fact, I played them at full screen simultaneously on both the MacBook Pro and the 1.67GHz 17-inch PowerBook. The PowerBook could not keep up — it dropped frames and stuttered. The MacBook Pro played them smoothly without any fuss. Office documents opened quickly, even though Office is being translated through Rosetta.

Bottom line — I am relieved. I can't wait until mine arrives on Tuesday! I guess I need to get a life and stop reading these damn forums!

[jeebus]

Originally Posted by venom600

I am having issues with Rosetta as well. While applications like Safari and QT Player are native, their plugins aren't. So in order to view stuff like WMV and Real video in browser, I have to run Safari in Rosetta. Not a huge deal, but it is a little annoying.

Yeah I agree. Mine won't ship for about a week still, but that does sound pretty annoying. Hopefully they will have universal binaries of the plugins ASAP.

I am still super excited to get it though! It's supposed to ship on the 3rd but the Apple rep I spoke with said she thinks it's very likely that it will ship before then, the 3rd being the absolute latest ship date.

[awcopus]

I am just amazed that the previous generation Powerbooks have a hard time with Quicktime playback of movies. I get perfect audio but stuttering video playback of H.264 movies sized to 720x408 on my iBook 600MHz G3, which has a whopping 16MB of VRAM and well under a gig of RAM.

Saving grace of this iBook is that it's built like a tank and still plays Return of the King, the Extended Edition, straight through without needing a battery switch. Using a simple cable I've given some great Keynote demonstrations at business meetings and using another cable I'm able to watch DVDs in my hotel rooms.

I'm generally psyched about upgrading my portable Mac, but based on what I'm reading, I'll wait for Apple to release more apps that are native to the Intel processor. Adobe, too.

[k squared]

Originally Posted by awcopus

I am just amazed that the previous generation Powerbooks have a hard time with Quicktime playback of movies. I get perfect audio but stuttering video playback of H.264 movies sized to 720x408 on my iBook 600MHz G3, which has a whopping 16MB of VRAM and well under a gig of RAM.

Rumor has it that HD decoding is handled by the graphics card on the Intel Macs. This isn't the case with the PowerPC Macs. H.264 decoding is tough enough for a G4, let alone a G3.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by k squared

Rumor has it that HD decoding is handled by the graphics card on the Intel Macs. This isn't the case with the PowerPC Macs. H.264 decoding is tough enough for a G4, let alone a G3.

The Intel Macs have enough 'umph' to do the decoding with the CPU... my 1.86Ghz PM can play any 720p and most 1080p videos (in VLC, Quicktime for Windows blows) without dropping frames, and it's a core short of the Intel Macs.

The GPU in the Intel Macs supports H.264 decoding, but I have yet to see anything official saying it is used. The first generation of the Windows driver for the X1xxx cards didn't support acceleration.

[jeebus]

Originally Posted by awcopus

I am just amazed that the previous generation Powerbooks have a hard time with Quicktime playback of movies. I get perfect audio but stuttering video playback of H.264 movies sized to 720x408 on my iBook 600MHz G3, which has a whopping 16MB of VRAM and well under a gig of RAM.

I think people are referring to HD 1080p videos. They are 1920x1080 and require a lot of processing power to decode. The old powerbooks were supposed to have trouble playing just one of these videos, whereas the MBP is supposed to be able to play 2 back simultaneously without dropping any frames. I think if you tried to play a 1080p video on your iBook you wouldn't even get clear audio, let alone video.

[dndog]

Originally Posted by jeebus

I think people are referring to HD 1080p videos. They are 1920x1080 and require a lot of processing power to decode. The old powerbooks were supposed to have trouble playing just one of these videos, whereas the MBP is supposed to be able to play 2 back simultaneously without dropping any frames. I think if you tried to play a 1080p video on your iBook you wouldn't even get clear audio, let alone video.

Its good that Macs will finally be equal in processing power to Windows. My one year old Dell desktop (Intel P4 HyperThreaded 3.0ghz) had no problem playing HD1080p, and with the core duo, neither will any of the new apple machines.

[driven]

Originally Posted by TheGeekGuy

4. Issue - Rosetta does a good job, but any program that has preferences accessed through System Prefs is nerfed.

What does "nerfed" mean in this context?

[jamil5454]

Originally Posted by driven

What does "nerfed" mean in this context?

I think it's a way of saying "hosed"

[f1000]

Originally Posted by k squared

Rumor has it that HD decoding is handled by the graphics card on the Intel Macs.

Not according to this thread, http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=282269

[f1000]

Originally Posted by jeebus

The old powerbooks were supposed to have trouble playing just one of these videos, whereas the MBP is supposed to be able to play 2 back simultaneously without dropping any frames. I think if you tried to play a 1080p video on your iBook you wouldn't even get clear audio, let alone video.

Originally Posted by dndog

Its good that Macs will finally be equal in processing power to Windows. My one year old Dell desktop (Intel P4 HyperThreaded 3.0ghz) had no problem playing HD1080p, and with the core duo, neither will any of the new apple machines.

It depends on what format the 1080p video is in. Even PCs have problems playing back 1080p files encoded in H.264 without GPU acceleration. Macs with GPU acceleration have been shown to play back 1080p transport streams with ease.

[zubro]

How does it do with Pro Apps (Final Cut Box)?

[WOPR]

Originally Posted by jamil5454

I think it's a way of saying "hosed"

Or maybe 'borked' ?

Heh, I love the internet!