October 14 MacBook announcements!
Monday, October 13th, 2008 - 10:08pm
Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for, for months - Apple is having a notebook-oriented press conference.
Several friends of mine have gone Mac in the last year or two, and love it. I need a new notebook, so I'm considering a MacBook Pro IF I can get one powerful enough to game on. In the past, they've been pretty decent, but not quite where I'd want them to be. For example, using Nvidia 8600s rather than 8800s.
Very excited...
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Would be a good idea. I plan to have Logan sit in for me when I am on my honeymoon.
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
I have a 2005 powerbook G4 that's getting long in the tooth. I've resisted replacing it because its still so darn functional. Movies are a bit stuttery since I switched to Leopard, but it's still quite a workhorse. I haven't managed to succumb to the temptation to upgrade, but tomorrow might be the straw that broke the camels back. I really don't *need* a new notebook, my iMac does everything else really well. C'mon Steve, enable me!
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Should be interesting
Tomorrow will probably be the decider of whether my next laptop is another Mac or not -- after five years of fragile power supplies and flaky slot-loading DVD drives I'm just about ready to go back to a less shiny, but more functional, PC laptop running Linux.
Xbox Live: pneuman | PSN: pneuman | my tech/games/rant blag
I'm watching this one too, Fed. My notebook's getting long in the tooth.
By the way, the thing for me is that I am strictly a laptop user/gamer these days, so it's gotta be powerful for me to buy. Otherwise, I'm probably going Sager. Either way, I'm tired of my 3.5 year-old laptop chugging along in newer games.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Hmm...if Daring Fireball's rumors are correct, I guess I won't be going Mac.
This Gruber fella is saying that there won't be new 17" Pros yet...what sense does that make, though? Hopefully he's wrong.
They're also reporting that the top GPU they'll be using is an Nvidia 9600, although there's some talk that there's also an onboard video chip that works in tandem with it as SLI.
We'll see for real in 4.5 hours.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Yeah, typically Apple doesn't put premium video cards in their systems, even the high-end ones. I keep hoping they'll change that position, but they never do.
It's a neat operating system. Their laptops would be far more interesting to gamers if they at least had an option for high-end video.
I don't think Apple is too worried about high end gaming for their laptops. Apple being a very weak market for gaming in the first place. I would argue that your average mac user wouldn't be into "computer gaming"
I think there is a market out there for a diffrent type of gaming for Apple users. More casual gaming like they have been implementing for iphones.
If they set up a digital distribution (app store,steam) that came pre-loaded and had games like peggle on there I think it would be successful.
Well, Jobs doesn't like to associate his Macs with games. To him they are work machines, let the kids play games on that other platform.
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
Yeah, well, they didn't think they'd ever encourage people to put Windows on them, either...until they did.
Seriously, with an Nvidia 9800 in a 17" Pro, I'd buy one and dual-boot. That's a sale they aren't getting any other way, and it's far less radical than Boot Camp.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
I didn't find any of the announcements posted so far that exciting. I'm just not feeling it.
The brick process seems interesting, but will that make it even harder to upgrade the laptop/access its innards? Offhand it sounds like an even more effective way to lock in proprietary upgrades, maybe even simple stuff like ram.
"YOU SPOIL, YOU GET SPOILED! AAAAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Doesn't look like it, Fed -- 9600M. By Apple's standards, that's a good part, but by gaming standards, you'll probably be disappointed.
Also, only 15.4" screens right now, nothing announced about 17" yet.
time to get your sager... I would recommend a single card solution over sli as well, unless you have more money than you know what to do with it...
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Pretty much exactly what everyone expected. I like the look of the fancy new screen, but other than that, nothing I can't live without, or that makes me regret my Air.
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"In other news, Miyamoto pissed on my head, and gave me a forecast of rain." - *Le
Overall: big yawn.
They only mentioned 17"s in Q and A, and yeah, I'm assuming it's the 9600 for them as well. Why no mention in the presentation? Sticker shock?
Looks like I will be sticking with Windows, and probably getting a Sager.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Good question. I'm assuming maybe a parts shortage of some kind? He was really remarkably uninformative about it when asked.
The new touchpad is interesting. And I'm a guy who hates touchpads. I use the keyboard nub on my ThinkPad instead of its touchpad. But I feel compelled to go down to the local Apple store to try this thing out.
The 17" Pro is the redheaded stepchild of Apple notebooks. Probably won't see it take on the new form factor until at least Macworld.
I've spent the past 90 minutes glaring at my 15" Santa Rosa-based MBP with contempt and disdain.
"Even though that place should only be fifteen or twenty minutes away geographically, in actual practice - between the hours of four and seven - Redmond might as well orbit the Earth." - Tycho, Penny Arcade
Wow, the 17" pro isn't even getting the upgrades...still rolling with an 8600. Barf.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Nice update to the Macbook line. Glass Trackpad, LED screen, Aluminum body, better integrated graphics, backlit keyboard. It weighs 1/2 lb less as well.
MacBook Pro update sounds less exciting.
Each lineup lost a Firewire port and some cpu speed (in some models) though. Quite a bit (on paper) in some cases.
MBA received a 50% more storage and better integrated gpu touchup. OK. No glass trackpad. Boo.
Solid State drives are an option on the new MB and MBP laptops.
Seems like the new MB gained alot of ground in the MBA vs MB choice.
I don't follow. What's not exciting about the video capabilities in the new Pro?
"Even though that place should only be fifteen or twenty minutes away geographically, in actual practice - between the hours of four and seven - Redmond might as well orbit the Earth." - Tycho, Penny Arcade
C'mon guys, it's a computer whose case is CNC machined out of a single piece of metal. How is that not cool.
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I had my hopes up for a notebook sculpted out of mithril, but I'm a dreamer.
"Even though that place should only be fifteen or twenty minutes away geographically, in actual practice - between the hours of four and seven - Redmond might as well orbit the Earth." - Tycho, Penny Arcade
Like, everything is going into the cloud, man. I'd probably buy a Mac netbook. They might make one with a not crappy resolution. What the hell is the deal with 1024x600?
I haven't owned a Apple product yet. But the new Macbooks do tempt me. If I didn't already have a decent laptop I would probably try one.
Demi - Well, the video card on the 17" hasn't changed in over a year, so that's unexciting. As for the 15", they could keep their two GPUs and offer me just one 9800 - the $1449 Gateway has one, for crying out loud.
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- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Colour me curious, but wary. On paper, the new MacBook looks just about perfect for me -- full-featured, with discrete video (even if it's not super-fast), and smaller and lighter than the old model (down to 2kg). The glass screen and button-less trackpad are interesting. It's hard to picture how they'll work, but I guess we won't have to wait too long before we'll have first-hand reports, or we can get our own grubby mitts on them at the local Apple store. The slot-loading DVD drive, and the presumably unchanged power supplies, are still negatives in my book.
If the screen and trackpad turn out to be okay, then I might put up with the other stuff so that I can keep running the best mobile OS around, but otherwise, I think I might be in the market for an XPS M1330, or one of the new mini-Latitudes.
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Glossy screens. GLOSSY SCREENS?
F that.
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Apple's response: "You offset the reflection by the brightness, and consumers love it. One of the great things about a notebook is you can turn it however you want!"
If anyone's on the fence and worried that the MBP's 9600 GT isn't sufficient for gaming, I can testify that my until-just-today top-tier 15" MBP has proved quite capable at gaming via Bootcamp. Even with an 8600 GT, I can comfortably run games like Titan Quest, Rome: Total War, Half-Life 2 and its expansions, Company of Heroes, and Spore, all with maximum details and at the native 1440x900 resolution, usually with V-SYNC enabled, and sometimes with FSAA of one stripe or another. Bioshock also runs with maximum details, though I had to lower the resolution just a bit. Many older games run well in VMware Fusion, which obviates the need to reboot into Windows.
Of course, none of that will matter much if you're looking for a 17" screen, or if you want to spend less than two grand, or if you want better future-proofing. I think there are other good reasons to consider a Mac, but I'll resist the urge to describe them, lest I expose too much of my inner zealot.
The market has much to answer for as to why gaming is NOT an art. -- illum