For the Mac users here, what’s your opinion of the new MacBook Pro? (I’m not wild about the name, but understand the need to change it from Powerbook and, of course, iBook is taken.)
I’ve put off a purchase for months waiting to see the Intel *Books, and I was glad to see it was the Powerbook line and not the iBooks that bowed first. Have to say I like what I’m seeing online, and I read where folks are saying they appear to be as fast as claimed.
I don’t mind buying Rev-A, but I plan to wait a few weeks after they start to ship just to see if any major engineering faults arise, as happened with iMacs about a year back.
It’s too big. It needs to be 12”. It also needs to weigh less than 4lbs. At that point, I will have to take measures to restrain myself from a purchase.
Anyway, Rev As always have immense problems, I’m happy to let someone else play with it.
It’s too big. It needs to be 12”. It also needs to weigh less than 4lbs. At that point, I will have to take measures to restrain myself from a purchase.
Good point about the 12-inch *Books, Lisa. Back before Apple announced the switch to Intel, I played mental Pong with the 12-inch/15-inch decision. The 12-inch would do me, no doubt, but I’ve had no problems with the size or weight of the 15-inch. And the bigger screen is nice, of course.
If I traveled a lot long-distance and packed it around everywhere, the 12-inch would have the advantage for me. And I suspect that within a few months (weeks?) we’ll see a 12-inch MacBook. (Just a guess. No wild Mac rumors originating from me. )
I travel a lot with many textbooks, and the weight thing is HUGE. To be honest, I’m on a 12” dell now and thinking that a 10” would be perfect. Everytime I go smaller, I wish I’d gone even smaller.
Battery life is apparently one of the things they didn’t improve this go-around, at least from what I’ve read today. Slashdotters are saying there were no battery life figures available today. Another thread here.
Best guess appears to be about 4.5 hours, give or take, and/or about the same as the existing Powerbook. Yet another reason to wait and see how shipping units behave.
I’m with Lisa on this one too. For me to get one it has to be a 12” screen and it has to be light. I would love a higher resolutions screen on my 12” as well.
After pondering the new MacBook overnight and this morning, I’ve a new concern: software.
I’ve not seen a lot of software (or announcements of same) yet as Universal Binaries, and I’m not even sure if Apple’s Mail and Safari are now Universal. (I assume they are, as of 10.4.4 for the Intel Macs, anyway.)
I read somewhere that Jobs did a demo of Photoshop running on Rosetta yesterday, but that it ran rather poorly, which I guess is not a surprise. And, last I heard, Adobe was in no rush to port that suite of apps. (On the flip side, I saw today that GraphicConverter is now a Universal Binary.)
For most of my Web work I probably could get by with Photoshop on Rosetta, I guess. Still, software is yet another point to consider.
I have a 12-inch PowerBook, and regretted the purchase only because it lacks a PMCIA card, which I would have used for EV-DO. Now, the new MacBook Pro at 15-inches fails to provide one as well, opting for a newer technology slot - which no EV-DO card fits into :(
My understanding is that most software will work, and developers have had access to deal with intel based stuff for awhile. I don’t think it’ll be a huge concern unless you’re using some pretty obscure software.
After pondering the new MacBook overnight and this morning, I’ve a new concern: software.
I’ve not seen a lot of software (or announcements of same) yet as Universal Binaries, and I’m not even sure if Apple’s Mail and Safari are now Universal. (I assume they are, as of 10.4.4 for the Intel Macs, anyway.)
According to Apple the Macbooks (What a terrible name), ship with the software running native. A few apps are Universal, can’t remember which ones.
I’m firmly in the 15” category. !2” inches is just to darn small, and 17” inches is just excessive (not to mention heavy. For me, I need a desktop replacement with a good deal of power and visual real estate, but for it to be easily portable.
I don’t like the name MacBook. I belatedly realized that the name PowerBook would have to go away, but MacBook sounds kind of lame. But, I’m totally interested in being able to dual boot. I use Mac OSX almost exclusively, but since 65% of my work is technical support, I spend a lot of time troubleshooting Windows, and it would be great to not have to Timbuktu into a PC just to remember where XP moved this or that control panel option.
I was surprised at the lack of FireWire 800, since this is the pro level machine. Admittedly, before that I was afraid that FireWire would be totally gone. Which would definitely mean no upgrade for me. To make my laptop solution work, when I’m at home/office I plug into over a terabyte of storage (databases, client files, websites, and then of course my own music, movies and tv). So at least one Firewire port was fundemental, or I’d be back on a desktop machine, in future upgrades.
I’m firmly in the 15” category. !2” inches is just to darn small,
When I was going to make the change from 14” to a 12” screen I was worried so I asked several people (including Lisa) if they could really red text and brows web or not!
But now that I have my 12” screen I will never go back on a 14” or higher!
And I have no performance issues too. I can come up with more details if you like. =)
Still lots to ponder. Plus, I figure Apple will refresh the MacBook in some way by mid-year and probably introduce a 12-inch and 17-inch about then. I think Jobs said the entire Mac line will be Intel by the end of the year.
I can imagine they were pretty rushed to get the new MacBook (and iMac) ready by now.
But back to Step 1: Wait for ‘em to ship.
Then on to Step 2: Wait to see if there are any engineering issues.
Then Step 3: Decide if I want one now or want to wait a bit longer.
Good thing I’m in no hurry for this purchase ... Well, other than I love the smell of new Macs in the morning.
I’ll echo drusoicy’s comment. I was ready to order one until I realized there was no PCMCIA slot. I’m very fond of my relatively new EVDO card/service and don’t want to give it up.
I’m not overly concerned about the universal binary/Rosetta issues. I was a NeXT user and lived through a similar transition before. Sheesh, it’s a new decade - time for Jobs to pull a new processor out of his hat.
Having said all this, I’ll probably bite when something a bit thinner/lighter is available. Maybe there will be PCMCIA adaptors/drivers by then.
The simple fact that Apple is moving the entire product line to Intel this calendar year gives you an idea just how serious Jobs & Co are taking this.
This means in 2006 we’re going to see a Macbook replace the iBook, an Intel Mac mini, and a new tower to replace the G5 towers. It’s going to be interesting to see what comes along…
(BTW typing this on a “vintage” 2000 G3 Pismo…with a 14” screen )
For what Apple spends on advertising, design, marketing and branding, you’d think they could have come up with something better. If not for the “Pro” designation, I’d wonder if this was some sort of interim moniker, with the next series - redesigned - to be called something else.
I saw a person calling it “mBook” on another forum today. Does sound better.
When I was going to make the change from 14” to a 12” screen I was worried so I asked several people (including Lisa) if they could really red text and brows web or not! But now that I have my 12” screen I will never go back on a 14” or higher! And I have no performance issues too. I can come up with more details if you like. =)
I don’t need to be persuaded. I’ve set-up a number of the 12” PowerBooks as well as the iBooks, and they’re all great, just not for me. I’m not a believer in bigger is better, but I’m definitely not a believer in smaller is better. I’m on my laptop 10-12hrs per day; I like my comforts. I don’t want my browser to take up the full screen. I like having continous news feeds, running to my right side using multiNews Reader. I like having at least 1-2” of space between my browser window and that newsfeed. I like my dock to the left. I like to be able to code in one window, while still having enough space to play the latest episode of Desperate Housewives or the L Word off to side; without covering my news feeds or my browser window. If I’m remoting into clients servers, I like to queue the Timbuktu windows up, so I can count them off like a task list.
It’s the little things, or the not so little things that are important. It would be easier for me to adapt to larger, than smaller. That doesn’t stop the 12” from being a great product. I’d even want one, if I could afford it, a brand new 15” and a dual core desktop. Unfortunately, its third on my priority list, so unless I win the lottery that I never play, I’m assuming I’ll be sticking with my 15”. Besides during my half day playing with one, it burned so hot, I was afraid it might melt; and I wasn’t even doing a full work load, since most of my apps and tools weren’t installed on it.
A 15” Powerbook seems to be the perfect size for me. Right now I am leaning back into my ancient sofa lazily typing away on it, but when I want to do serious work I will go into the study and plug it into my 20” flat panel. I can do programming and web browsing on the big screen, while having email and IM on the original Powerbook screen. A smaller screen would not really work for me because even with Expose and BBEdit’s script organizing, there is simply not enough wiggle room to do all that I want at the same time (multi tasking is my friend).
I chose the higher speed 100 GB, 7200 RPM hard drive and the 1.83 GHz, and plan to never look back.
I’ve got a G4 with a 19” CRT monitor and is typing this on a 14” Dell laptop, and 15” seems the perfect size for me.
I’ve never ever just whipped out my credit card and bought something like that, but I feel very very positive about the whole Intel transition, and actually look forward to it, problems and all.
I plan to scratch my Entourage/Office work-flow and go the “All Apple Software” way, or at least try to, and if I can’t live with Mail, I’ll buy the next version of Entourage. But I like the way Apples software is starting to interact, I might even go with a dot-mac subscription, witch will be proof that I’ve gotten the Apple bug badly!
I have no idea what I wanted to add to this discussion, maybe just raising my hand and saying “I’m Thomas and I’m a Mac addict ... again”. I had started to think “Well, this XP isn’t so bad” but now my enthusiasm about Apple and Macs is renewed, and that by a product with such a horrific name “Mac Book”
Anyway, I love it, being a crazy mac-head again, I’ve missed ‘ya all
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