Jump to content

New MacBook Pros


Palaver

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 67
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

can i ask an odd question? i literally bought a macbook pro (15 inch 2.5 GHz, which was current up until today's news) on friday (october 9th or 10th or whatever). i feel a little played out. do stores not know when new products are coming out? chances are, i might prefer the macbook pro i bought anyways, but if anything, i feel like the price would have been a bit cheaper if new macbook pros were on their way. i just cannot help thinking the store knew that new macbook pros were coming out and could have warned me about this. but maybe i am wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

They are on the same bus. People complaining about this don't know what they're talking about.

 

 

I would be one of those people... is there any link, or any technical page on apple's site (I have not come across it) that states this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

can i ask an odd question? i literally bought a macbook pro (15 inch 2.5 GHz, which was current up until today's news) on friday (october 9th or 10th or whatever). i feel a little played out. do stores not know when new products are coming out? chances are, i might prefer the macbook pro i bought anyways, but if anything, i feel like the price would have been a bit cheaper if new macbook pros were on their way. i just cannot help thinking the store knew that new macbook pros were coming out and could have warned me about this. but maybe i am wrong.

 

 

The stores don't officially know until the product announcement, but in future you should check sites like http://www.macrumors.com before buying, there's been a buzz about this announcement for over a month.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

As I understand it Apple has a return policy when new gear is released within a week or so of a recent purchase - you can take it back and get the new one, no questions asked. Give the store a call and tell them you want the new one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The problem with this, is it's too retarded.

:rolleyes: Okay... So you don't want a 1 RU Mac all of a sudden?

 

How is this not configurable? It even has two PCI Express slots for, say, UAD-2 cards or PCI-based audio interfaces. I'd get one myself if Apogee officially supported them for their Symphony system.

 

I know a guy who built the largest Apple audio server in the world (in Burbank). All XServes.

 

Hardly retarded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

:rolleyes:
Okay... So you
don't
want a 1 RU Mac all of a sudden?


How is this not configurable?
It even has two PCI Express slots for, say, UAD-2 cards or PCI-based audio interfaces. I'd get one myself if Apogee officially supported them for their Symphony system.


I know a guy who built the largest Apple audio server in the world (in Burbank). All XServes.


Hardly retarded.

 

No, I'd love to have the XServe (or at least a Mac product in 1U), but it seems like overkill and out of my budget range. I've seen this before, but, I am not handy with messing around with computers (hardware/structurally wise). I'd want to configure it like a MacBook... just a normal OS, normal softwares, ethernet/airport connections. This XServe thing struck me as a little overboard, and a little insane (hence the retarded comment). I want to run a bedroom studio, and not a factory of DAWs.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is, how could I make this more into a personalized computer/DAW? Have you heard of Macintosh catering to that request for these 1U boxes?

 

All apologies for my ignorance. But how would you go about making this Xserve thing into a personal computer/DAW? I just wouldn't know how to go about the whole process.

 

Cheers,

Phil

 

EDIT: After reading over the configuration page again, I realized there is an ethernet port option. I am just a little confused on the box... and I am assuming I'd just order a regular copy of Leopard and boot up the machine. To me, it just seems like it may be easier to just get/configure a MacPro, and order a flight-case to carry it around in. Altho, the 1U rackmont Apple would be glorious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

There are a few companies that will rackmount Mac Pros and a few even pull the guts out and put 'em into a custom rackmount shell. Unfortunately, none of them are cheap. :(

 

Of course, to cram the power of a Mac Pro into a 1 RU box, there's gonna be a lot of complicated, expensive design going on. The pictures also don't really illustrate how heavy and deep the thing is. Notably deeper than it is wide. So yeah, you're right

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Looks like the two new macbooks don't have firewire, but they are still offering the old white $999 macbook with 1 firewire port.

 

 

Yes, with the agere firewire chipset that is incompatible with a large number of fw interfaces.

 

Great job Apple, congratulations!

 

But they want to go mainstream and into the gaming territory. But with the new prices? People are used to pay 499 for a dual-core laptop with firewire. Why pay more than the double for a Macbook without firewire, just because it says Apple on the cover?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

can i ask an odd question? i literally bought a macbook pro (15 inch 2.5 GHz, which was current up until today's news) on friday (october 9th or 10th or whatever). i feel a little played out. do stores not know when new products are coming out? chances are, i might prefer the macbook pro i bought anyways, but if anything, i feel like the price would have been a bit cheaper if new macbook pros were on their way. i just cannot help thinking the store knew that new macbook pros were coming out and could have warned me about this. but maybe i am wrong.

 

 

I think you have a two weeks return policy with 10% stocking fee. If you feel that is worth to you, just visit them and exchange your computer.

 

The new macbooks where anounced on several pages for months. I hardly can believe that the sales stuff would NOT know about it. However, you could have done some homework too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have it on good authority that firewire will be dead soon anyway. USB 3.0 is right around the corner and it'll be a lot cheaper to incorporate.

 

 

Intel is pretty much done with its USB 3.0 host controller standard, which means the wait for it to show up in laptops and such will not be long now:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2008/08/13/intels-usb-3-0-xhci-goes-gold

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

i have never heard of macrumors and according to the guy at apple, their info is never very accurate anyway, so it would not have particularly helped anyway to check it. apple does say they have a 14 day price protection plan where i guess you could get the difference or return what you got. i bought mine at my school store and according to them they won't get the new ones for a few weeks and the one i bought was already discounted. i bought the (now outdated) 2.5 GHz 15 incher last friday for 1,999. which was a good deal, i suppose. the store also mistakenly sold me ableton live 7 suite at an educational discount (i am not a student but as an alumn am eligible for hardware/not software discounts). so maybe it is karma.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

ugh... they must've fired their awesome industrial designers, the silver/black combo is as ugly as the Toshiba laptops (typed from my lovely white Macbook):

 

toshiba%20laptop.jpg

 

redesigned20081014.jpg

 

lest we forget where this stemmed from. the Powerbook Titanium:

15-inch-titanium-powerbook.jpg

 

oh, what the hell...

apple2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

i have never heard of macrumors and according to the guy at apple, their info is never very accurate anyway, so it would not have particularly helped anyway to check it.

 

 

Actually, MacRumors is a pretty reliable site. They mostly report other sites' rumors and comment on how reliable those sites' track records are.

 

That Apple guy is either lying to you, or knows every little about Apple rumors. That said, even if he did know about an impending release, he couldn't discuss it with you. Apple won't even allow rumors to spread on its discussion forums (part of the TOS).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I would be one of those people... is there any link, or any technical page on apple's site (I have not come across it) that states this?

Here you go - http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/15inMacBookPro_0711/Articles/ProductDeveloperNote.html

More info than you'll ever need. You'll see the FW ports in the bottom right of the diagram, notice they share 1 controller on a 33Mhz PCI bus.

 

I'm surprised they've dropped Firewire, I know Intel are really pushing USB, but unless Intel have really changed the USB protocol much FW is a much better media transport - that's what it was designed for. Distinctly unimpressed with these, never liked the '2-tone' look either, 1 colour (especially my black Macbook :) ) always looks much classier to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have it on good authority that firewire will be dead soon anyway. USB 3.0 is right around the corner and it'll be a lot cheaper to incorporate.


Yes, existing firewire devices will be worthless. Just like your serial MIDI interfaces and SCSI hard drives.
:(

 

 

Confusion. Disbelief. Anger. Sadness. Acceptance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Anybody else notice that even the Pro model uses shared memory now between video and CPU? Video RAM used to be separate on the Pro.

 

 

Someone may have already responded to this, but the Pro actually has both. Shared vid memory (to improve battery life) or a dedicated card (256-512 MB). I thought that was a thoughtful feature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
ugh... they must've fired their awesome industrial designers, the silver/black combo is as ugly as the Toshiba laptops (typed from my lovely white Macbook):


redesigned20081014.jpg



Its funny...

My first impression of the new look was that it was ugly. But the more I look at them, the more I like what I see. I really like the redesign of the aluminium.

I used to have a 17" powerbook with silver keys, backlit. The problem was, in mid-lighting conditions, the keys were harder to read with the backlight on, than off.

I think the black keys make a lot more sense with the backlighting. It also has a vaguely retro look to it which I quite like.

Tempted, but not sold. If the Macbook had firewire, Apple would have my $$.
I will wait for Rev2 when Firewire re-appears on the Macbook..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...