Macopinion

The Road Warrior Mailbag - October 27, 2008

New Apple Notebooks Enticing But Not Without Shortcomings
New Apple Laptops
Laptop Laidback 3 Discount?



___



New Apple Notebooks Enticing But Not Without Shortcomings

From Rick

Charles, I read your thoughts on Apple's new notebooks with interest because I value your views on such matters perhaps more than any other writer on this subject.

I ordered a maxed out MacBook Pro (2.8 Ghz., 7200 RPM 320 GB HD) the day they were announced, and I'd like to tell you why I'm pretty excited about the promise of it.

First, I've been wanting to consolidate to one machine after using both a desktop and a laptop/notebook for many years. I've attempted to do this twice in the past (once in 1998 when I switched to the Mac and again in 2005). I've been unsuccessful each time for one or two reasons. The primary factor in the past has been hard drive size. I simply couldn't get a portable Mac with a hard drive as large as I needed. I seemed to always be swapping files back and forth between my portable Mac and my desktop Mac at home.

A second reason was video capability. For the past two years, I've used a MacBook, which has been enough computer for most of my needs, but was very slow when editing video. Granted, I don't do a lot of video editing, but the MacBook simply isn't made for this kind of use with any regularity. I bought an aluminum iMac last year strictly for video editing which is a wonderful computer, but having it for this sole use seems like a waste of a good computer. Well, technically video editing wasn't the sole use of the iMac. I also kept my iTunes library on it because of the aforementioned issue with hard drive space.

So anyway, because over the years, I've come to the point where I use a portable machine 90% of the time, I really only felt I needed a Mac notebook. When Apple announced the new MacBook Pros last week, I felt like my answer had arrived.

I have a number of Firewire peripherals, so I had to opt for the MacBook Pro with which I'll use an adapter. But I wanted the larger 15" screen anyway if this is to become my only machine. Also, I know a lot of people are upset about the glossy screens, but for my purposes I've very much grown to like the glossy screens using one on my MacBook for the last two years and the iMac for the last year. I find that simply tilting the screen slightly usually takes away any significant glare.

Regarding my concern with hard drive space, if Apple had offered a 500 GB drive (which is now on the market from third parties) I would have opted for that, but I'm willing to be patient and upgrade the MacBook Pro myself later when even larger hard drive offerings arrive. One thing about the new MacBook Pros which is especially nice is how easy it is to swap out hard drives. My MacBook had been easy enough and I had already upgraded the hard drive on it once and performed the same kind of upgrade for a couple of my friends. But with the new MacBook Pros, Apple has recognized that consumers ought to be able to upgrade the storage space on laptops as easily as we can upgrade RAM.

Further, from what I understand, the new MacBook Pros use a SATA optical drive. This should mean that the drive could be replaced with a SECOND hard drive with very little effort (although I'm not sure yet how easy it will be to get to the drive). Frankly, I don't use an optical drive all that often anymore. I need one occasionally, but I certainly wouldn't mind having an external solution via USB2 for the optical drive.

With this kind of expandability--although it's not exactly the same--the new MacBook Pro may be the most expandable Mac portables since the Wallstreet/Pismo days.

Regarding video concerns, the dual Nvidia chips will certainly allow me to replace the iMac for the purpose of occasional video editing and then some.

But there may even be more advantage. Although Apple says the memory limit on the new MacBook Pros is 4 GB, there is much speculation going on as to whether 8 GB might not be the actual limit. Nvidia has confirmed that their chipset will not limit the MacBook Pros to 4 GB but will allow for 8 GB:
<http://blogs.computerworld.com/nvidia_says_new_macbook_pro_can_do_8gb_of_ram>http://blogs.computerworld.com/nvidia_says_new_macbook_pro_can_do_8gb_of_ram

Of course, right now the only question is whether or not Apple has crippled the MacBook Pros to a 4 GB ceiling. I haven't heard of anyone actually testing this out yet because two 4 GB chips cost upwards of $1100.

However, IF the new MacBook Pros can be expanded to 8 GB (RAM prices always come down eventually), this fact along with the easily expandable storage options could mean that these notebooks could have VERY long life spans for consumers.

So while a lot of folks weren't overly excited about the new offerings, I think they are quite significant in the ongoing evolution of Mac Portables. Mine should arrive today, and I'm looking forward to finally consolidating to one machine.

Rick

___

Hi Rick;

Good to hear from you again, and thank you for sharing your thoughts on the new Mac ntebooks. I sounds like the new MacBook Pro hits the sweet spot for you.

I totally agree about the ease of swapping hard drives. Long overdue, and one of the most compelling features of these computers for me. Unfortunately, the new Pro models are out of my price range, and with good deals available on leftover and refurbished early 2008 MacBook Pros,which also have LED displays, I can;t justify the greater outlay for one of the newbies, especially in this economy with my retirement nestegg melting away like an ice cube in the hot July sun.

As for the RAM, perhaps you recall that the official Apple ceiling for the Pismo was (and remains) 512MB, but they happily support twice that. I have no idea whether the same dynamic will obtain in the new MacBooks.

Good point about expandability. Well short of expansion by grade, but definitely some enhanced flexiility with the second SATA bay.

Reportedly, getting at the insides isn't too bad with these 'Books. See this article.
http://blog.smalldog.com/article/1375/the-new-macbook-from-a-service-technicians-point-of-view/

I hope you will send us a report or two about how well you like your new MacBook Pro.

Charles







New Apple Laptops

From Lachlan

Hi Charles, just read your astute impressions of the new Apple portables.

Personally I'm saddened that Apple chose to differentiate the models by leaving FireWire off the MacBook. It seems to me that they are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to the education sector, as many schools have drives, audio interfaces and cameras that all connect via firewire and are not going to rush out and purchase the MacBook Pros due to price. (I believe the entry level MacBook (White) is a run-out model that won't be around for much longer - and seriously, who "upgrades" to the same machine they already have anyway?) In Australia we are paying a price premium, with the new Unibody MacBook retailing at $2099 - with less connectivity!!

This leaves the door open to other manufacturers and operating systems surely.

Steve and Co need to get back into the real world, where people have peripherals they expect to be able to use. (It's not like firewire was replaced with a new superior standard ...)

I don't find the new laptops compelling enough to justify their price especially with the dearth of connectivity options. (Only 2 USB 2 ports on a > $2000 laptop? Ridiculous.)

Thanks for the review. I'll be looking for a last gen MacBook Pro too.

Cheers,
Lachlan

___

Hi Lachlan;

Glad you enjoyed the article.

I agree with you about FireWire, although I don't think it was a product differentiation decision so much as that the tiny logic board necessary to fit inside that ultrathin unibody case with a footprint dictated by the 13'3" display simply didn't have room for a FireWire port.

Personally, I have too many FireWire peripherals that I have no intention of giving up on for a good long time yet to seriously consider buying a machine that doesn't support FW.

Charles







Laptop Laidback 3 Discount?

From Jimmy Yuan

Thanks for your intro.

Laptop Laidback 3 Stand For Reclined Computing Re-Engineered is a good and funny goods, but $99 is too expensive. Where have a discount price?

Some can help me?

___

Hello Jimmy;

Actually, that $99 price is a substantial cut from the price of the earlier, Laidback 2 model which sold for $139.

As far as I know, the only vendor for the Laptop Laidback is the manufacturer and no discounts are available.

Charles



***



cmoore@macopinion.com

Note: Letters to The Road Warrior may or may not be published in The Road Warrior Mailbag at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

If you would prefer that your message not appear in The Road Warrior Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.

CM