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Oct 14, 08 - 08:46 am Comment from: Tiger

Does this have a microprocessor, or does it use the processing power of NVIDIA to do everything?

That would cut down cost tremendously. And it would be something that MSFT cannot do, since only Apple OS has processor-independence (PowerPC, x86, ARM).

Oct 14, 08 - 08:46 am Comment from: MadMac

Glossy only?????

Rattymouse
Another site says it has 800 but no FireWire 400.

A clicky track surface...

Where have I heard that before...?

Oct 14, 08 - 08:53 am Comment from: wannabe

It's probably possible in theory -- in the strictly academic sense of "possible" -- to use a modern GPU as a CPU, but I can assure you that it is not practical. Performance would be lousy for a whole class of very important operations, and even porting OSX to a new, well-understood general-purpose architecture is a massive development effort.

By the way, back in the day Windows NT ran on everything from Alpha to Sparc, and Vista is still based around the old NT design, so Windows has been ported before.

Oct 14, 08 - 08:59 am Comment from: Chuck U Farley

There goes all the gain AAPL made yesterday.

" Gruber also claims that none of the new laptops will reach the rumored $899 price point -- the part number spotted earlier seems to be associated with a new 24-inch LED Apple Cinema Display with DisplayPort according to MacRumors, not a low-end MacBook. To support this, Gruber says that the aluminum MacBooks will indeed be announced in $1,299 (2GHz, 2GB memory, 160GB disk) and $1,499 (2.4GHz, 2GB memory, 250GB disk) configs and will ship by the end of the week along with new 120GB HDD and 128GB SSD configurations of the MacBook Air. While CPU clocks will remain pretty much the same, all new MacBooks -- regular, Pro, and Air -- will feature the new NVIDIA 9400M GPU -- the 15-inch MacBook Pro (the 17-inch will remain unchanged albeit with 4GB of memory and bigger 320GB disk) will feature a second 9600M GT GPU making it a true graphics powerhouse as previously speculated. Lastly, the current 2.1GHz white MacBook remains in the line-up but will be cut to $999."

Sucks! But this makes sense, can you imagine the avalanche of MacBooks purchased in the last 30 days being returned if the new Aluminum MacBook was priced at $899?

Oct 14, 08 - 09:06 am Comment from: Cubert

That thing looks sweet!!!

But the missing option for a matte display sucks.

Man - I can not wait to get mine on order!

Way to go Steve!

Oct 14, 08 - 09:10 am Comment from: Cubert

Supposedly the new laptops are going to have "sick" battery life.

I just hope this means the euphemistic "sick" and not the kind of sick that I deal with on a daily basis.

Steve Jobs: "To woo over even more Windoze switchers, we are going to make them feel right at home with a laptop that gets only 2 hours per charge and rapidly degrades to less than a half hour within 6 months. And, we guarantee that you won't be able to use it without plugging it in before the year anniversary!"

(loud applause from all those in attendance)

Glossy only?! These screens offer reflections and glare, so why is that seen as the better option?

I attempted to use two flat panel LCDs with gloss and while the color did pop, the additional "noise" from reflections was annoying and eventually they were replaced. It will be unfortunate if matte is not offered - hopefully Steve gives a little explanation and doesn't "gloss over it" - :=)

I can see the logic of introducing a lower priced portable Mac with NO FIREWIRE in the region of $800, but to exclude FW from Macbooks in the $1000 to $15000 bracket is commercial suicide in my eyes.

I have also heard they are dropping the bottom model Macbook with the superdrive also!

What about price sensitive consumers that have 18 month old DV cameras and lots of footage of their children?? Are you seriously suggesting they purchase a newer generation of USB only camcorder to be able to manuipulate the footage in OSX applications, or worst still, pay $2000 for the priveledge of connecting the old camcorder to an Apple laptop?

Oct 14, 08 - 09:12 am Comment from: Jay-Z

I'm not overly enthused about this design, but I wasn't thrilled with the aluminum iMac until I saw it in person. I was hoping the bezel would be smaller - it doesn't appear to be.

AAPL will dive on the news of no $800 notebook.

SELL SELL SELL

Oct 14, 08 - 09:14 am Comment from: Cubert

Rattymouse and Mike R.,

The MacBook Pro is rumored to have Firewire 800 only with the MacBook having neither.

I can't believe that Apple would maintain two separate MacBook lines as the article states - completely not in keeping with their past actions.

No matte display? Boo! Glossy screens look great in the dark but I'm sick of nasty UV light reflections on my MacBook.

Also, a display connector smaller than MicroDVI? WTF is the point of that?

Oct 14, 08 - 09:16 am Comment from: Cubert

Jay-Z,
The bezel is thinner than the current MacBook Pros. The black "bezel" is actually under the glass screen - look close (in honor of the grammatically incorrect "Think Different").

Glossy only????? That could be a dealbreaker for me. I HATE HATE HATE glossy. Hello Ebay... :(

Have you seen this?!

The "best" of Steve Ballmer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8M6S8EKbnU

OMG! How terriple is that!

This would suck if true:

- Glossy only

- 13" without any FireWire at all

- No 17"


Observations:

- FireWire 800 is compatible to FireWire 400 with only a 400/800 cable required; the two 400/800 ports on the current MBPs share the same FireWire interface anyway, so it's just the extra socket that's removed with no loss of functionality (maybe even an upgrade to 800/1600/3200?)

- A video port other than fullsize DVI or mini DVI? Must be Display Port then — no more VGA at long last! DP is the future equivalent to what DVI has been: The professional video port as opposed to the consumer HDMI (to which it can still be adapted via cable).


MDN word: "years": It would be years before I'd buy another MBP smaller than 17" and with a glossy screen on top of it all! :-(

Oct 14, 08 - 09:29 am Comment from: MrScrith

I have a 17" macbook pro and I really like it, hate to see it fazed out. Hopefully the demand for it stays high enough for them to leave it in the lineup.

Oct 14, 08 - 09:30 am Comment from: Wandering joe

@ Cubert
look close (in honor of the grammatically incorrect "Think Different").
Think Different is grammatically correct. They are not saying "Think Differently", just "Think Different".

The screen looks like the HP touch screen. I wonder if the MacBook Pro's screen is multi-touch...

Lots of trolls out today on this subject. Why not wait until the announcement before bitching about what the line will have or not have. Jeez!

Oct 14, 08 - 09:33 am Comment from: jonahan

Yes, I couldn't deal with a 15" after having a 17" that would suck.

Oct 14, 08 - 09:34 am Comment from: Macdoc

I think, I'll wait until 1pm EDT for the truth...

Oct 14, 08 - 09:35 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

There is a possibility of FireWire 3200, which uses the same 9-pin connector as FireWire 800, making it's debut. Losing FireWire 400 would be just plain BAD.

I use BOTH FireWire ports on my MBP. FW800 for my Time Machine RAID and a few extra external hard drives. FW400 I use for a CompactFlash card reader, a slide/film scanner and a small external hard drive.

MAINLY I use FireWire 400 for my consulting work: FireWire Target Disk Mode. This is crucial for running diagnostics on other Macs, except for the MacBook Air. Yes, I could boot from my DiskWarrior disk, but it takes longer AND if I need to run some other utility, then I'm stuck either creating a boot disk that will (hopefully) boot the machine I'm working on with an array of utilities, or most likely, I'd be stuck and shit-outta-luck.

Let's hope that this will be your typical Apple Rev.A machine (A = AVOID!), they'll restore FireWire 400 in the Rev.B machine. Remember the original MacBook Pro without FireWire 800!

Apple better have a matte screen option. For me, it would be a nightmare having to deal with a glossy screen in the variable environments I work in. Glossy screens are ergonomically poor. There's always sandblasting, I suppose... ;^)

Oct 14, 08 - 09:42 am Comment from: whoitis

not to be all debbie downer, but how can a Rumor be a spoiler alert....

if these were legit photos wouldn't Apple© Legal have them removed...?

Oct 14, 08 - 09:42 am Comment from: Predrag

Wanering joe (and Cuber): Precisely. It is a phrase from colloquial slang, along the lines of "Think blue" or "Think: Terminator meets Terms of Endearment", when describing something and trying to get person to open their mind and expand their thinking outside of ordinary, standard norms. Think Different was an extremely subtle but powerful message to catapult brand awareness of Apple as significantly different from anything else out there, and it worked.

And on the subject at hand, we have too many confusing pricing and configuration options, it seems that we'll have to suck it up and wait four more hours before we're clear on what's going on.

Mr. Reeee: Glossy screens are ergonomically poor. There's always sandblasting, I suppose... ;^)

Unfortunately sandblasting a surface that's significantly in front of the actual panel would cause massive blur. A matte surface works only with minimal loss of sharpness if it is immediately on top of the panel, not a glass pane in front of it.

Oct 14, 08 - 09:49 am Comment from: John Crawford

@Cubert

Think differently about Think "Different".
It may be Think (it could be) Different.
Or – Think (about the word) Different.

Hope the announcement is different. Game changing?

No firewire 400? I doubt that claim. There are too many mobile FCP users that connect their cameras through firewire. All those case images from earlier only show one side of the case. My guess is the other side has FW400.

Oct 14, 08 - 09:50 am Comment from: MacintoshSoftwareList.com

This sucks. I guess I will not be buying one. NO firewire, NO $800 Macbook. SUCK SUCK SUCK!!!

Oct 14, 08 - 09:57 am Comment from: shen

"By the way, back in the day Windows NT ran on everything from Alpha to Sparc, and Vista is still based around the old NT design, so Windows has been ported before."

and like all things windows, it sucked more with each port.....

wow, i hope all these rumors are not true otherwise let's all prepare for a major disappointment:

- no 899 price tag (amidst the mighty $400-$600 netbook/notebook trend, have a look at amazon's top ten for reference)
- no 16:9 screen ratio (will soon be standard across the board and will make apple laptops in a few months look dated)
- no firewire on macbook (are they kidding? should i throw away my digicam?)
- no innovations (like the rumored cinema-display-dock)

aapl will start to tank at 2pm est.

When they announced the aluminium iMacs with the black back and screen and white keys I thought it was an odd mismatch, but I prefer it now. Will we see two versions with different coloured keys - with one being more than the other?

@MacintoshSoftwareList.com
That's because you are only happy when using Dell products. Go away troll!

Oct 14, 08 - 10:15 am Comment from: jjjj

everyone's a hater. where are the fanboys?

If all these rumors are true, I'm glad I bought the last generation. I have a feeling Apple will make some port changes with the next update just like they did after the first MBP was introduced.

What are they thinking? Oh well.

ralph from berlin: wow, i hope all these rumors are not true otherwise let's all prepare for a major disappointment:

- no 899 price tag (amidst the mighty $400-$600 netbook/notebook trend, have a look at amazon's top ten for reference)

The return rates are also sky-high because most users don't want to cope with the Linux running on those machines.

ralph from berlin: - no 16:9 screen ratio (will soon be standard across the board and will make apple laptops in a few months look dated)

That is an extremely stupid trend. 16:10 is already narrow enough — with 16:9 you would be in even bigger trouble doing any serious text editing or web reading.

Movie watching is the only thing that might in some way profit from an even narrower screen — for almost everything else it sucks.

ralph from berlin: - no firewire on macbook (are they kidding? should i throw away my digicam?)

That would be unfortunate indeed, even though cameras apparently are being shifted to USB as we speak anyway — as ill-advised as it is.

ralph from berlin: - no innovations (like the rumored cinema-display-dock)

We know very little at this point. Display Port, hybrid SLI, Multi-Touch "Click Pad", current NVIDIA chip set, HDMI-compatibility, probably Blue Ray in the top models and maybe a few other things wouldn't be too bad by themselves if expectations would be met.

Exclusively glossy screens, no 17" and no FW on the 13" would be dismal, however.

ralph from berlin: aapl will start to tank at 2pm est.

As usual, even on the most warmly welcomed presentations in the past...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Glossy screen. Yuccccccch.

Most of these commenters aren't trolls, they are commenting on the rumor. They are implying "if this is true, then...".

Also, I believe it's saying there will be a FW800 port, but no FW400 port. That means that there IS FW400, because you can use an adapter (if this is true), so calm down!

The only real negatives to this possible new MBP for me are: Glossy only = no sale to me, period. And... ugly! I'll bet it will look better in real life or in a better pic if this really is it though, but to me, these photos are just plain ugly. It works on the iMac, not on the MBP!

Chris: Also, I believe it's saying there will be a FW800 port, but no FW400 port. That means that there IS FW400, because you can use an adapter (if this is true), so calm down!

The photos of the 13" case seem to indicate that the smaller one will have neither, the 15" just the newer 800(/...) connector.

With all this whining (by trolls?), watch Apple share price plummet...


Reminds of the best laptop of all time, the Titanium Powerbook.

Beautiful.

Oct 14, 08 - 10:47 am Comment from: Petey

Why go back to the old black keyboard?

Looks shit imo.

And if it only has a glossy screen then there's no way a professional user will buy this machine.

Some insight into how long we've had to wait for updates. A new record for both the MacBook Pro and MacBook ... 229 days!!

The longest ever wait for MacBook or MacBook Pro updates: 229 days

Thats shocking if theres no firewire...


I thought they were kidding at first with the macbook air... then it's true. I really hope they don't pull out firewire off the macbooks... it's suicide.
I don't mind taking the optical drive out or floppy, but firewire 400...they'd better have a different method of mounting the internal HD from another mac, should the OS go down.

Will MDN cover this event in the same exelent manner as the Let's Rock event?

Macaday: With all this whining (by trolls?), watch Apple share price plummet...

I'm not a troll, I'm a very satisfied user of a 17" MacBook Pro with a matte screen who simply wouldn't welcome exclusively-glossy MacBooks with no new 17" at all.

I would loathe having to defect to a PC notebook, so I'd probably hibernate until the glossy madness has passed. In that case Apple wouldn't see a purchase from me for several years to come.

People need to stop crying over there being no FW 400 port on the pro. FW 800 is much better and you can just use a 800/400 cable for cameras that use FW 400. The latest spec for FW says that it can but used through ethernet. So if Apple allows this (through an adapter), then even MacBook users can still use their FW devices.