During a special press event at Apple's campus in Cupertino, the company refreshed its entire notebook line - the MacBook Pro, the Air, and the ordinary MacBook. In addition, the company also launched a new Cinema Display. The rumours on the 'net were more or less spot on, so there will be little news for those that keep up with that kind of stuff. Read on for a breakdown.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Someone please tell me that Apple wasn't actually dumb enough to remove Firewire support from the plain 'ol Macbook. I hope it's the MB Air you're referring to - I know several people who purchased MacBooks, solely because they're a convenient way to import/edit video.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-17
I can finally stop ranting about the poor graphic performance... only to have another thing to knock it down. I think the number of people not able to use cameras or dabble in music, video, or podcast production really kills the point of getting the Apple machines. These new frames are probably absurdly expensive to manufacture... 2.5 lb. blocks of aircraft grade aluminum are not cheap, it's probably killing their margin. The nvidia chipset would not have included firewire and that would have been extra cost to add it back in on top of the extra cost of having a GPU now. Apple could have made up the price difference using slower processors and let performance be the key. That said Apple computers without firewire or expansion to add it is a big problem. They just kicked out a large group of customers from buying the cool Apple toys at the store. I suppose that's why they left the $999 vanilla macbook, to clear out inventory and to provide the firewire for those that need it.
I'd agree the lack of firewire is a face-smack to those building up a collection of mac-happy devices. The cheapest Macbook Pro is simply way too much money to justify unless you need the machine for work.
Member since:2006-02-12
what exactly gave you the impression that Apple cares about capturing a bigger market share? Plus the increase in price and the feature reduction is due to the increase of manufacturing cost. A solid piece of aluminum and new manufacturing technology = high production costs. Ever wonder why no other company does that? But not to worry in about a year the price will be back to normal and I am guessing most of the features will be back with their latest revisions. Anyway Steve definitely lost my money this time around. Oh and the MBP DOES NOT have sli by default. Not to mention that it's a pain switching between cards...
Member since:
2005-06-29
What's not to like? The lack of firewire for one. No target mode, no support for firewire camcorders, no support for audio interfaces. Also no express card slot to make up for the lost functionality.
Price is yet another point. They could've captured a lot of marketshare by pricing it lower, yet they insist on lowering the profit margins. That's no good news. They seem to no longer target the semi-pro crowd with that, but the general public would care less and instead opt for an alternative that is much cheaper.