4x faster than the current PowerBook? Yes please – although I think I’ll wait for the second generation. Only a very brave soul shells out for version 1.0 of anything.
Update, 11 Jan
After reading through the specs of the new Macs, the most interesting thing for me is that the iMac can now be part of a twin-screen setup (until now, if you wanted to run dual screens you needed a Power Mac or Powerbook). I suspect that when it’s new computer time, I’ll plump for the iMac rather than a new ‘book – it’s £500 cheaper, and I’d still have my current Powerbook for doing stuff when I’m out and about.
Oh, and MacBook Pro is a terrible name for a computer.
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0 responses to “I want that one”
It is very nice (apart from the name). Interesting comparison here: the G4 machine has a few extra pixels, and an 8X Superdrive, but the Macbook comes with 1Gb of RAM (as they all should) and I think the iSight built-in is a brilliant idea:
Powerbook v Macbook
Although Steve obviously intended this to be a nice surprise, my initial reaction was shock; I felt as if my Powerbook had suddenly become terminal, even though Apple are still selling them, and even though mine is well down on current spec. The problem with relentless innovation is leaving your customers feeling left behind: my iPod is so old it doesn’t have a clickwheel, yet in real terms I haven’t had it that long, and there’s nothing really wrong with it.
> but the Macbook comes with 1Gb of RAM
Only on the £1779 model. The £1429 one has a half-gig.
> I felt as if my Powerbook had suddenly become terminal, even though Apple are still selling them, and even though mine is well down on current spec.
Yeah, I know that feeling – my book is a perfectly decent laptop, and my iPod mini is a perfectly decent MP3 player. I don’t think I’ll replace either any time soon.
I’ll no doubt rant about this some other time when I’m not in deadline hell, but the tech industry’s constant upgrade! upgrade! upgrade! chant is often wayyyy out of proportion to the actual benefits of said upgrade. Take the Nano for example: it doesn’t offer any more capacity than my mini, and while it offers more battery life I only ever use the mini on bus trips, train journeys and flights, for which it’s perfectly adequate. Sure, it’s smaller, but my mini is more robust. Sure, it’s got a colour screen, but mp3 players are for listening to rather than looking at. When the mini dies, I’ll buy a nano. Maybe. But until then there’s absolutely no reason to.
> The problem with relentless innovation is leaving your customers feeling left behind
Oh, definitely.
Have to admit – the nano is *really* pretty. Saw one in the flesh the other night.
On the upgrading thing – we’re about to literally dump 200+ PCs as they are below minimum spec. 1.7GHz P4s. Might see if they’ll let me have one as a media PC. ;-D
I’m still using a year-2000 G3 iMac at home, with the RAM upgraded but only to 386MB. It’s a little too slow to handle OSX as quickly as a new machine, but not by a lot. Recorded the Squander Pilots album on MicroLogic (eMagic’s bottom-of-the-range application, supposedly no good for proper work) on it, using OS9, and it was a perfect recording instrument: 16 simultaneous tracks of stereo plus effects plus automation, and never a glitch or a jump. A machine that can do that is a damn fine machine, yet, apparently, it’s so obsolete now as to be laughable. Still has far superior graphics to my two-year-old Windows laptop, too. Come to think of it, the Windows machine feels more out-of-date after two years than the Mac does after six. Longevity really is one of Apple’s big selling points, so perhaps they should stop trying to undermine that.
I am going to upgrade to a Mini, though. It’s been six years. When are the faster ones out?
> we’re about to literally dump
Are they buy-able?
> When are the faster ones out?
Consensus is pentium-powered ones in the next few months.
So the only way of getting a speed-bumped pre-Intel Mini is to buy a non-speed-bumped Mini and hope you win Apple’s bizarre lottery system? That’s just plain crap, that is.
>>Are they buy-able?
Probably not but I’m going to ask anyway. P4 1.7Ghz, 256-512Mb DDR RAM, onboard graphics and 20Gb HDD. Small for factor though so not that easy to upgrade.
Hmmm. The reason I’m asking is I need a machine I can chuck around and run via VNC. Doesn’t need to do gaming or owt. If there’s any going for sale let me know, ’cause I’d definitely be interested.
> hope you win Apple’s bizarre lottery system? That’s just plain crap, that is.
Any Apple purchase is a lottery. Every single time I’ve ordered a machine, it’s been speed-bumped the day after delivery. Bleh.
I’m just waiting for an Mac Mini with a 64 bit x86 processor with a 100% success rate for installing Windows :-)
Yip I want a Mac but want to run Windows on it (probably dual boot)
I agree that the name suck “Mac Hooker Ho” wouldn’t even sound as bad.