Yes, new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are out.They look pretty cool. My favorite feature is the smooth edge-to-edge screen.
On the face of it, there aren't that many huge advances over the just-obsolete line. The entry price point has been dropped to $999 for the base model (which is an old one - faster than the cheapest new one, curiously). But if you want a new one, you must ante up $1299. The screens are now LED - using less power than the old LCDs.
Forums seem focused on the loss of firewire for the MacBook non-pro line. That means no bootable external hard drive. But I see that as a minor loss - kind of like how Apple first rejected the floppy drive. In time, everyone followed suit. (My analogy breaks down in that firewire was never part of most computers.)
One thing I haven't heard anywhere is that I think it was a strange decision on Apple's part to blur the lines between their pro line and their consumer line. Both now look and act very similarly. For $500 difference, you get a larger screen, firewire 800, a slot to fit a wireless cell phone connector and not much else.
Apple has released a great little video in which the design team discusses the new MacBook. If you're into design at all, it's worth a watch. (The photo shows Jonathan Ive, the head of the design team.)
So if you've got $1299 burning a hole in your pocket, go for it! Better yet, hit the refurbs store and for the same money, get a faster just-obsolete MacBook Pro, for the same money.
1 comment:
I agree about the same look of the consumer and pro models. I guess they love their al-loo-min-um and glass too much.
It's funny in the video that Jony Ive basically says he can't see how the Macbook could be any simpler. I thought, 'he's out of a job then'.
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