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Is it ever "safe" to buy an Apple notebook? Sheesh.

Feb 27, 08 - 01:10 pm Comment from: rsbell

Damn! I just ordered my 2.5 MBP!

I was looking at buying the new MBP17inch that just came out. Should I hold off till June and get one then? Will they be that much better?

Feb 27, 08 - 01:23 pm Comment from: Mr. Peabody

You know, I was never really impressed with Intel's Centrino processors - I wonder how the Centrino 2 is different?

Anybody?

Feb 27, 08 - 01:23 pm Comment from: Not Bill

You buy when you need it. Something new and better is always on the horizon. We would not want it otherwise as innovation would have to end.

they will always upgrade them but I would bet for whatever you are using your computer for, today's line-up will suffice. june upgrades likely to be evolutionary not revolutionary.

Those new Intel chips are supposed to have Wimax embedded in them. I wonder if Apple will allow that in there laptops. Or will apple make you pay some money to be able to activate the wimax chip. Or maybe apple just won’t tell you and that wimax chip will sit and do nothing, and you’ll have to buy an express card or usb to get on wimax….

Feb 27, 08 - 01:34 pm Comment from: Ampar

The Centrino quickly replaced the Tarantino. There was too much blood and only a small cult following.

Feb 27, 08 - 01:45 pm Comment from: Mr. Peabody

But isn't Wimax just another proprietary wireless networking service? That isn't even really in place yet? And there's an entire chip dedicated to that sitting on every Centrino 2 assembly?

@ Not Bill "Something new and better is always on the horizon."

that's for sure. but buying a macbook pro (same formfactor now for about 3 years) a few month before the shiny, ultrasexy, ultrapowerful NEW formfactor macbook pro comes out could make you cry the day they arrive at an apple store near you (which means not here in berlin)

i forgot: superslim, superlight, smaler footprint, bigger touchpad, 7 hours battery life macbook pro

seriously i think a new macbook pro will come out at wwdc. it looks a bit dated now next to a macbook air.

Feb 27, 08 - 02:10 pm Comment from: Grigori

@Ampar,

Its best days are DEFINITELY behind it.

I miss the good ole days of Pentium 2 Pentium 3, etc, and you could figure out that the higher number was faster.

Story designed to impede MacBook sales. The fact that the writer is so confident is proof. How would he know? Probably on the MS FUD payroll.

"Pun (n.): the lowest form of humour"

Feb 27, 08 - 02:54 pm Comment from: Ampar

"A good pun is its own reword."
- Anonymous for safety reasons

Feb 27, 08 - 03:00 pm Comment from: jjjj

Has Apple ever used anything officially "Centrino"? Will they?

Feb 27, 08 - 03:00 pm Comment from: boyweho

> By comparison, the 1.6 and 1.8 GHz processor
> found in the MacBook Air has a rating of 20W TDP

According to the article, the TDP of the equivalent new processors are 17W, so only a 3W savings. The 5.5W processor the article mentions is 1.2GHz. To go faster than current speeds is to increase the TDP to 25W (for 2.26GHz and 2.4GHz).

So to the question, should you wait, I'd say no. Apple may in fact replace the current processors w/ equivalent speeds and save 3W, but I doubt they'd put faster ones in and increase heat by 5W, although I personally think an MBA at 2GHz or better would be nice.

Feb 27, 08 - 03:20 pm Comment from: LordRobin

I'm confused. I always thought "Centrino" = "sh*tty bargain chip for notebooks". And this is going to replace the Core 2 Duo? What am I missing here?

But what the hell do I know? It's not like I paid attention to Intel's chip lineup during the Mac's PowerPC years...

------RM

LordRobin: that was my first thought as well. Intel might make some good processors, but they could use some MAJOR marketing help.

They have all these wild names for the processors, then they classify those names into older names like Xeon or Centrino. Meaning that an older machine might have a 3GH XEON, but it's slower than a newer 2.8GH XEON, very odd.

Feb 27, 08 - 04:08 pm Comment from: MCCFR

Time for a little clarification to some of the posters here…

Centrino 2 is a brand; obviously Intel believe that the Montevina platform - which in reality embodies something like the fifth iteration of the Intel's mobility reference platform - is worthy of being differentiated from earlier versions of the Centrino product.

The question is Are they right? Or is it all smoke and mirrors?

From my point of view, Montevina marks the introduction of so many new technologies that it would seem almost churlish to deny Intel's marketing team the right to make a bit of a song-and-dance about the whole thing: DDR3 memory (pros: lower power consumption, doubled transfer rates at the same memory clock, cons: higher latency), WiMax (aka IEEE 802.16, not a proprietary standard as stated by someone else), DisplayPort video connectivity all seem like a good thing not to mention Intel's Robson NAND flash-memory caching technology.

The fact is Montevina has been slated for release in the Summer 2008 timeframe for some while so it has nothing to do with FUD, so long as your smart enough to do some research and pragmatic enough to understand that, with the glacial progress of the AIM consortium a distant memory, there will likely never be a time in the future where your hardware purchase is 'king of the hill' for longer than 6-9 months.

As proof of that, we already know that Montevina will be rendered into yesterday's fish-and-chip wrapping when Intel intros the Calpella (Centrino 6G) in the middle of 2009: Calpella (apparently named after a smallish town in Mendocino County, CA) will provide support for Intel's Nehalem micro-architecture (Core 3 Duo) processors.

This is apparently where a chip known as Gilo will finally appear; a recycled codename, Gilo was originally the process shrink of Merom however Merom was itself the process shrink such was the progress of Intel (contrast and compare with Moto/Freescale, if you're the sort of person who enjoys being beaten with twigs).

Nehalem is the next "tick" (architecture) in Intel's "Architecure and Silicon Cadence" before the "tock" (silicon) that will shrink the 45nm Nehalem into the 32nm Westmere (formerly known as Nehalem-C).

Rumours suggest that Nehalem will make Penryn look pedestrian which is a worry to me given that I do most of my 'serious' work on a dual 2.5 GHz G5 and stuff like documents on a PowerBook G4 (I have no need or desire for Windows).

I think it is improbable that Apple would be working on another major revision of MB pro so quickly after releasing this relatively major upgrade. It would undermine the company's ability to sustain a product rollout time phases, as well as consumers may lose confidence with their expectancy from the company and the ideal time to purchase/invest.
Also, this would harm the current line up, inventory will be muddled, and it would also create a competition against the existing line ups. Vendor relations would also be strained.

I think, there maybe couple (as in MDN magic word 'couple') of reasons why someone would want this new MB pro rumour to fly:

1. They were disappointed that MB-Pro design didn't offer anything dramatic akin MB-Air and so it was more like a hopeful thinking.
However, that very reason why Apple may hold off donning anything 'sexy' to the MB-pro as that would undermine then buying the MB-Air which is only what a few cm slimmer and a few pounds lighter.

2. Someone is spreading fUd. They wanted to make sure that people will again hold off purchasing the MB-pro with a news that it is about to be replaced in the very silly immediate future. I can only speculate who they might be, but I'm not going to.

Centrino is just a brand name for a group of low-power chips.

Feb 27, 08 - 05:02 pm Comment from: pocketRocket

Oh man! Thanks MCCFR...

An update in June would suit me better and provide me with my first MacBook Pro - even if it is only a Penryn! I think the increase in FSB and faster DDR3 memory will be a worthwhile wait.

It's only February and already I'm wishing the year away...

mac mini's turn?

Feb 27, 08 - 10:06 pm Comment from: MCCFR

krquet…

I'll give you dollars to doughnuts that Apple intros Montevina-based laptops (as iMacs) in late-July/early-August.

Feb 27, 08 - 10:08 pm Comment from: MCCFR

Sorry! That should read "as well as iMacs"

Could somebody tell me what they might call todays processors if they keep the Pentium name? For example pentium 9...

Feb 28, 08 - 08:41 am Comment from: MCCFR

If they'd kept the Pentium branding, Yonah would have been Pentium V, Merom/Penryn would be Pentium VI and Nehalem/Westmere would be VII.

However, Pentium is associated with the whole megahertz myth era of processor design which, like Moto/Freescale's and IBM's inability to deliver, is best consigned to history.

Sounds like the writer of this article - just read an old spec detail roadmap with a bunch of buzzwords, got a little confused, re-read it... still confused... remembered Apple uses Intel CPUs, and wrote this article.

NEWSFLASH! - Apple just updated the Cpus in the Macbook, and Macbook Pros, and they will continue to do so... constantly. duh
but they wont be implementing any of the vPro or Centrino nomenclature ... thats all intel marketing BS!

Let's see, buy it now and enjoy it for 3 or 4 months or buy it later, put up with my old laptop for 3 or 4 months and save 5 to 10 minutes on a Handbrake DVD rip when I finally get a new laptop.

Decisions, decisions.

thanks for the info MCCFR

I'm been chugging along with my little core duo mac mini at the office, and sold my dual g5 powermac at home, and to be honest, I've been itching to upgrade. Been coveting a aluminum imac.

Heck, the mini's covered under applecare til June, 2010! The mature, responsible thing to do is wait until the mini runs out of applecare and bites the dust, and save up my nickles in the meanwhile.

Sigh. I hate being mature and responsible.

Feb 28, 08 - 01:25 pm Comment from: Think

Use what you got until it just has a big enough speed difference compared to new Macs that you can't stand it anymore.
Then go buy an Apple Refurb and save $600 on last weeks laptop.

Bought the last 4 Macs this way. Saved lots of money and still got a Mac that looked new and had a one year warranty.

Get iPods this way too.

when is the mac mini going to get some love, and a get a decent 2.4ghz processor, 300 gig HD and upgradable ram to 4 gigs. Oh and a decent video card, that would be fantastic