MacBook with a Vengeance

[Ensign Steve]

My iBook G4 is nearly four years old, and I've been in the market for a new laptop recently. I had already built and priced out a new MacBook and was ready to spend my financial aid check to purchase it, when a classmate of mine told me to wait until Tuesday because that's when the new MacBook is going to be announced. Yay! Thanks for the info, dude, because I hadn't heard anything.

So for the last three days or so I've been waiting for the announcement, and reading rumors threads all over the internets about what it could possibly be! I hope it's aluminum. I don't like the black keys on the white/silver keyboard, like they have on the Air. I think it looks stupid, but apparently that's the direction they're going. Oh well.

Apple's Macbook redesign noise reaching a fever pitch | Computerworld Blogs
The nVidia-powered, laser-carved Aluminum brick? - MAC.BLORGE
Apple's October 14th MacBook release preview | Computerworld Blogs
AppleInsider | Aluminum MacBook, iMac-like MacBook Pro mocks leaked? [updated]
nVidia Inside Next MacBook?, Time for a Mac Netbook, Asus Launches MacBook Air Killer, and More

[Ensign Steve]

http://digg.com/apple ... I don't know why I didn't' just to go there in the first place.

The news of the "cheap" one at $799 makes me fear I won't be able to sell my ibook for as much as I'd like. If I was clever I'd sell it right now before the announcement, but I need to hold onto it until I get it replaced. Such troubled times we live in.

[viscousmemories]

I get all my Mac rumors from Mac Rumors.

[Ensign Steve]

I don't know why my big hurry is. It's going to be another week before I can buy it anyway. But I want to spec it out now, and the website is still showing the stupid old one. You know, the one I was all amped up to buy until about four days ago.

I've heard-tell it might have a multi-touch trackpad (yay!) and they're going to discontinue firewire support (boo!). Also Kevin Rose cruelly started a completely false rumor about BluRay support. Dick.

[BrotherMan]

I don't know why I'm excited about this. I don't have a need for a laptop. I just feel like I should want one. And why an Apple? I'm unhappy with my (now) 4 year old iBook. In fact, I haven't enjoyed either of the two laptops I've purchased. But, still, like some kind of hypnotized lemming when the new Book is announced, I'll ooh and aah over it and flirt with purchasing one.

ETA: They are updating the store for me and will be back shortly!

[Ensign Steve]

I'm just excited because I was totally already in the market to upgrade my iBook when I learned that they were updating the MacBook for the first time in ages. I don't usually have very good timing with these things, so it's fun.

They're not updating the store for me.

[BrotherMan]

Is okay. I'll tell them to hurry it up already.

[Ensign Steve]

Hee hee hee.

[BrotherMan]

The shiny. It has arrived.

[seebs]

The "we'll be back soon" post-it note is awesome. I wonder how fast it is.

[Steve Austin]

Now arsenic and mercury free. Careful how you dispose of that old MacBook. It's toxic.

[seebs]

They have failed me.

The 17" has the old graphics hardware still.

[BrotherMan]

Not only that but now I'm waiting for the iMac to be a giant iPod-like interface. Yegods can you imagine how smooth Apple will scale up that technology?

The consolation is that the "cheap" one is $999, so you might get more for your old one.

[Ensign Steve]

Yay! That's good to know.

The good news is I was right about the multi-touch track pad.

The bad news is I was right about the Firewire support and the BluRay.

[Doctor X]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

I get all my Mac rumors from Mac Rumors.

There are far better places for more update information. I prefer MacOSX. They struggle to answer questions. Forums are good for trouble-shooting as well.

I notice they handle "stupid" well--people who post "ARGHH HELP!" type questions without enough information. Mac Rumors assumes if you cannot handle Terminal, you are not worth their attention. They rather embody the Mac Stereotype of Self-Important Conceited Gits who Think Living in their Mum's Basement is an Improvement Over PC Gits who Live with their Grandmothers.

More seriously, contributors solved the "PC versus Mac" debate definitively. Some of the experts are IT people in both realms. As one put it, those who engage in those mindless debates are basically admitting they are too stupid to figure out a PC/Mac! In a way, they have a point! They also criticize Apple when it requires criticism rather than acting as a "Rah Mac PC t3h Suxxorz" forum.

Have a new MacBook as well. Replaced my Old Widdle Mac which was a belov'd Pismo. Finally, G4 550 MHz was just not cutting it. The current MacBook is t3h aw3s0m3.

--J.D.

[Ensign Steve]

New/current as in today's? I'm gonna go to the apple store manana and git mine. I decided not to wait. It's just going to be a matter of whether they have the one I want in the store.

[viscousmemories]

Three things Apple won't do | Apple - CNET News

I can understand the Bluray hate - it's certainly true that the future of entertainment media is streaming/downloading content. Still, Bluray isn't going anywhere any time soon, so refusing to support it seems petulant. The rest just boggles my mind; a touchscreen netbook (tablet) is exactly what I want.

As for the new Macbooks I'm impressed by the advances in manufacturing, but there is nothing about the new systems that compels me to buy one.

[Doctor X]

. . . but they have a program for a tablet . . . rumors about they are still trying to develop one.

But who really knows.

--J.D.

[BrotherMan]

I strolled into my local Apple store yesterday just to get my grubby mitts on the NEW MacBook. There isn't anything so revolutionary that gobs of people need to run out RIGHT NOW and get one, that much is true. If you're in the market for a new laptop and you are already familiar and enjoy OSX the new MacBook and MacBook Pro (13.3 and 15.4 sizes, respectively) laptops are pretty to look at and touch.

The trackpad is indeed multi-touch. With only minutes of experience even I was able to perform rudimentary gestures that would normally have me reaching for a mouse. What one doesnt' see (or, rather, what *I* didn't get) is that the track pad is a mouse button itself. Instead of having a separate surface for the button it was integrated into the pad. It's always the little touches like that Apple does well.

The keyboard is black-rubbery buttons on a silver frame, sorry ES. I think everything else is your standard Apple/Mac/OSX loadout. Is Pages new to anyone? It kind of is to me, running Tiger on an aging G4 iBook, but I haven't been paying attention to what came with Leopard.

[ChuckF]

Want, obviously, but I'm going to wait until my current MacBook falls to pieces before buying a new one.

That is a cool article, vm. I'm also kinda annoyed about Blu-ray support, but for the time being, blu-ray is too expensive for me no matter who manufactures it. When it gets down to a decent price point, I will probably go ahead and make the long-term investment in a format shift (i.e. HD TV, Blu-Ray player, actual discs, etc.). At first I wanted one because of the data storage, but the advent of rilly rilly cheap hard drives has pretty much obviated the need for 25 gb discs.

I don't care about touch screens so much, because I think they're icky. I know, it's not really rational, but whatever.

A netbook would be pretty awesome.

[Doctor X]

Arguing with someone over the color of MacBooks--"once you go black, baby, you never go back!"--I created this:



--J.D.

[ChuckF]

The black is pretty fucking hot. I'm a poor loser so I got the white, to match my white ass.

Will the new PB play WoW well? And is wireless int4rw3bz as effective as my cell phone?

I have to work the Fridays after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and since nothing actually happens on those days...