Hands-on with the MacBook Pro
By Peter Rojas 
posted January 10th 2006 3:26PM
posted January 10th 2006 3:26PM
It's all fine and good that His Steveness introduced new Intel-powered iMacs today, but we all know that the real star of the show was the new MacBook Pro, which we were lucky enough to lay our hands on earlier today. Nothing extraordinary from a design point of view -- it looks pretty much like the old 15-inch PowerBook, just thinner -- but the screen on this thing is amazing and the switch to Intel promises to give Apple's laptop line a much needed boost in performance.
Yes, it runs FrontRow.
New MagSafe power connector.
Slightly thinner than the 17-inch PowerBook.
Does any one know what's the reason Apple has not drop the price on the G4 Powerbook? Apple's site still have the 15" G4 PB at the same price as the new entry Macbook Pro.
148. You're absoluetly right. Architects have to deal with the same thing, great software for the PC, and horrible software for the Mac (sorry Mac architects, but you know its true). And we are in a design profession, Dell's don't cut it. Nothing rivals the Mac design, beauty and simplicity.
FireWire Issue
According to an email from pcmcia.org:
"We are aware of a few vendors who have ExpressCard/34 FireWire 400 modules under development. The only FireWire 800 modules we have seen so far have been in the ExpressCard/54 form factor."
So it sounds like there will (eventually) be an option to add another FW400 port to the MacBook via the ExpressCard slot...
Its too bad they couldnt figure out a way to make the slot a 54 instead of a 34 since that would have solved the FW800 problem right away; really making this a more viable "Pro" option for video people on the go. Link here for a spec sheet on the currently offered FW800 in 54 form factor:
http://www.abocom.com/product_detail.php?id=326
This is totally retarded. Apparently no one poasting here has bothered to read anything. To hit on a few issues:
Yonah was the code name for what became the CoreDuo...its like saying well my Computer is a Sawtooth (codename for a specific G4), but is it a G4 or a G5...duh.
There is no BIOS. The Intel Macs use EFI...Wiki it.
Dual Boot...Apple has talked about this numerous times, taking a "we dont care" attitude. All the Devloper Kits could dual boot, only issue was screen reso when using a 30" Cinema display.
No, the iSight is nothing like that in the iMac, excpet it looks the same, has the same dimensions, does the same thing, and oh yeah, is the same. Look at it!
People need to read before posting. If you dont, you just waste people's times with monstrously ignorant posts. Battery life is important, Ill give you that one. But BIOS questions? iSight? DualBoot? come on now...
To all those skeptics who say it won't run windows, lets talk to Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing shall we?
"Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday that the company won't sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines themselves.
"That's fine with us. We don't mind," Schiller said. "If there are people who love our hardware but are forced to put up with a Windows world, then that's OK."
And what a sweet world that would be -- for the Windows folks out there, that is."
recorded at: http://www.macuser.com/software/yes_you_can_install_windows_to.php
Ok, it looks really nice and I want one...but. I really want a regular Windoze lappy with the same kind of style/perf/features. I don't mind a smaller form factor and I don't mind paying the same price. What would you recommend?
I'm curious to know if they still support target disk mode.. it's something I've used many many times with powerbooks (going back to SCSI disk mode on my powerbook 1400 in '98!)
Was said: "12. I really WANT TO WANT one of these, but I love some of my Thinkpad features like the separate volume and mute buttons. Two pointing devices. And the light that shines down on the kb from above. ALL laptops should have that. "
The Powerbook and the MacBook have backlit keys. The keys light up when it gets dark. It's great. There are also volume up, down and mute controls, although they are on functions keys, not separate, but I don't use those keys for anything else anyway. Also keys for display brightness and keyboard brightness, etc.
Right mouse button? What right mouse button? Would you want fries with that as well? C'mon people! As a staunch PC person (network admin) I must admit that Apple outdid themselves with this one. Maybe time has finally come to switch to mac. Only worry is how long it would take to achieve the same proficiency level in the mac OS as in windows.
And what about the SuperDrive: no double-layer burning.
Why would you wantr to run Windows / Linux on this computer ?
OSX = UNIX you can run essentially almost any software under X11
But if you really want to get rid of all the OS X features and downgrade to some sort of Linux I would recommend YellowDog. I'm sure they're just developing a special version only for the Intel based Macs.
Regarding battery lifetime it should at least last as long as the current models. In Powersafe mode I expect something around 6 hours.
LOL!! Why are people wanting to run WINDOZ on this beautiful work of art?!??! Microsoft is the worst company ever made, everything made my microsoft is junk, and that is a fact. It has Yonah. Missing modem, s-video, firewire 800, DL drive, PCMCIA. Express card is the "new PC Card". Again, microsoft sucks, windoz will not run on this, anyone who wants to run windoz on this is really messed up.
if you're a desperate loser who would give up their life just to use windoz, buy virtual pc! and i read a comment that someone said firewire is dying, uh... NO firewire is far superior to usb. Apple is the best, repeat that 1000 times... Microsoft sucks repeat that 1000 times. windoz shouldn't even be called an os, it's more like, a virus. I don't care if someone calls me crazy, but MICROSOFT is CRAP!
I guess my Powerbook G4 just lost a whole lot of resale value. Oh well, it works great. These MacBooks should have some nice speed to them though, and battery life can only get better with higher capacity battery.
PCMCIA is basically a PCI interface and express.. well you guessed it, PCI express, so more throughput. Buffalo is allready out with a card reader and I'm sure soon we will have loads of other PCMCIAs ported to express standard.
Duo Centrino is a good processor I hope this laptop can dual boot. It will be great to have an option of choosing between two great OS on the same machine.
about two button mouse,
at least they should add mighty mouse style and let people choose if they want to use or not by settings of software. It's just that easy.
I heard in the video demo of the MacBook Pro doing the rounds that svideo is through an adapter on the video out and i heard the word 'prototype' in there too in relation to the battery life and heat.
buy or wait... this is the question...
I have been waiting for the intel based laptop for a while, definitely holding off on the purchase for at least a year.. and now that they are here, I am not sure if I want to get the first version on the market.. all depends on when the next version be out..
It seems the ibooks/macbooks sans pro will be out around April/May, but I could not find any reference to the next release of the macbook pro..
I am not sure I have a clear wishlist, except being a mac owner since the early 80s and figured out by now that the first release of a technology is usually buggy and quickly superceded...
all thoughts and advice are appriciated..
It looks good... but how long is the battery life? Is there going to be a 12" and does it work with windows software?
The battery life today apparently is 3 hours, 3 minutes:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/1/10/2436
They screwed up again. Why do they call this Pro? I'd order it now if it had firewire 800. All the pros in audio or film editing are deeply invested in FW 800 external drives. I know that some people were concerned that their cameras could access a FW 400 port, But Apple could have easily provided an adapter for them using one of the USB ports. A SATA port would be a consolation.
No right-mouse button? Oh please. If you need to right-click, hold the Apple key and hit the mouse button, theres your right click. But to be honest, with the way that Mac OS X makes everything work visually, there isnt much need to right-click. For example, you have a .jpg on your desktop, which you want to edit. By default, it opens in Preview in OS X, but you want to open it in Photoshop CS2.... no problem! Just drag the .jpg to the Photoshop CS2 dock icon, and up it pops in Photoshop. You're then done with the file, and want to delete it... well then, drag the .jpg to the trash can... or if you're lazy like me, hold the Apple key and press the backspace button.
Once you move to mac, you don't move back. Fact.
Here's what it's missing, Firewire 800, S-Video, Modem, PC Card (replaced by ExpressCard 34), downgrade on Superdrive. OMG why do ppl want to run windoz in place of OS X tiger?? OS X Tiger is far superior than Windoz Vista in every way! If you're crazy and want to run winblows, buy virtual pc or some crap made my microsoft. Bill Gates sucks, Microsoft sucks, everything made by microsoft sucks, and my genesis is better than the 360 crap.
oh yeah, most people want the right mouse button because you have been addicted to windoz, like a drug, but windoz will kill you faster. Learn to use control-click you stupid losers
As for the firewire 800 port, I think it's very possible that an expresscard with one, or even two firewire 800 ports will solve that.
As for the comment on the 5400rpm harddrive beeing to slow for firewire 800, I just want to say that that's the reason you use firewire 800. Just use it as the media drive when editing movies, music or whatever and you'll have up to 100 megabytes per second in transfer speed.
There is a right mouse button, you hit Ctrl and click the mouse button at the same time. You probably never used a Mac before so you didn't know that.
- 32-bit technology for a 64-bit pricetag;
- no FW800;
- no pcmcia;
- no rightmousebutton so the Intel Mac is a nono for Windows-lovin dual-booters;;
- the screen-resolution is to little for the price-tag;
and most important of all:
Apple says that NOT all applications will run as it did on our old Powerbooks, Apple states on its own website:
If you see the Universal logo on a new application, that means it will run on Intel- or PowerPC-based Mac computers. So that means...
That at this moment I should better buy a dual core laptop from another factory and put OSX on that as it has been done before.
Then I can have most of what lacks now in the new Apple-range.
MacBook Pro, je t'aime. Actually, the last Apple I had was a PowerBook oyster shell variety over ten years ago. Never would I get locked into a hard- or software matrix again. The astonishing thing about the macs (or MS OS for that matter) is that one has (somewhat more than) fifteen minutes of bleeding edge, but then a couple product cycles later, one is very old hat. Much less so, say the BSD's. On the other hand the consumerland plug and play convenience is nice to have, even if the eye candy quickly depresses.
Despite me being a Pro-Apple person I'm neutral on the new "MacBook Pro". I'm not a big fan of the name but I may get used to it. I'll probably be more likely to get the new "Intel iBook" when it comes out hopefully by April.
MacBook Pro "Pros":
Intel Core Duo Processor means this thing should scream. If I'm correct all Apple apps which come preloaded are Intel native which means they should run really fast. All other apps for the time being will run under Rosetta at at least the fastest PB G4 which is fine for my needs.
Front Row/Apple remote:
Really cool feature which I can't wait to see and use in person.
ATI Radeon X1600:
Finally a really great Graphics card that seems to put out the graphics juice we've been wanting. It must be good because Acer is using it on there TravelMate 8200.
iSight webcam:
Personally I've been waiting for that function in a Apple laptop for some time. The only downside to it is that it doesn't move in anyway unlike the one on the Acer TravelMate 8200. But still really cool.
MagSafe Adapter:
Sweet feature that should prevent the damage of laptops from when someone trips over the adapter cord. Great Idea Apple.
MacBook Pro "Cons":
Apple Display: I'm mixed on this one because it has pros and cons. Despite it being apparently very bright and sharp the resolution could be better (1440 x 900). Again pointing to the Acer TravelMate 8200 this PC laptop has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 despite it having the same screen size (15.4") as the MacBook Pro. I'd like to see Apple change that. 1440 x 900 (or close to it) can and should go into the new Intel iBooks.
DVD Burner:
Now at the moment I'm not one to burn DVDs mainly because I don't have a DVD burner. (I have a 6 year old G3 500Mhz iMac and a external LaCie CD burner) Nonetheless downgrading the burner to half the speed with no DL support was wrong. The Acer TravelMate 8200 has a DL Dvd Burner and it's also just 1 inch thin so I think Apple could have put it in the MacBook Pro.
Lack of ports (I/O's): the lack of ports on the MAcBook is sad. Only one FW not even two FW 400s and no FW800. Only two USB ports (most PC laptops have 4). No S-video port altho there apparently is a DVI to S-video adapter. No modem which is stupid even tho I use Broadband. And the ExpressCard slot should have remained a PC card slot...at least until enough ExpressCards were on the market.
I don't think I missed anything. Other then that it's a cool machine. Even still I'm most likely going to go for the Intel based iBook. Those are my thoughts. Make of them what you want.
For all those people pointing to the apple comment re: dual booting.
What the announcement says is that Apple hasn't done anything to stop people from installing windows.
Some people treat this as an announcement that says it CAN run windows. Unfortunately, doing something exactly to prevent people from running it, is completely different from being able to run it.
I guess this question is a bit misdirected to apple. It should be directed, instead, to microsoft. Whether any of their OS's supports the components used by apple :)
I want one too! This looks so sexy.
As for complaints of no right mouse, I think them are very valid. I use mac/pc/linux all the time and right mouse alone is NOT enough, better have mid-mouse too. Well, that's for external mouse, for touch pad, I can live with a single mouse though as it is not easy to press right mouse on a notebook anyway.
This thing is expensive though. The problem with mac is that there is seldom any sale. For Dell, although listing price is about the same, the actual retail price is about 66% of it I'd say. And Dell routinely runs coupons that will take 50% off their notebooks. (maybe twice a year, something like that). You can't find such things from a Mac vendor. :(
Quote: "Yes it's really easy to install WinXP right next to OSX, Linux too for that matter, better yet all 3. Use Darwine and run your Windows apps in OSX without having to boot to Windows"
No it isn't. As far as I know, Windows XP has to use BIOS, which is not featured on this machine, it used EFI.
That's a pretty stupid thing to post. I'd like to see how 'really easy' it is to install windows XP on it. Have you actually done it? No. Dickspash
176. - 32-bit technology for a 64-bit pricetag;
Nonsense - OS X is a 64 bit operating system
Where is the 17" :(