Apple's "spotlight turns to notebooks" event roundup
By Paul Miller 
posted Oct 15th 2008 5:26PM
posted Oct 15th 2008 5:26PM
The liveblog
Live from Apple's "spotlight turns to notebooks" event
First impressions
New MacBook / MacBook Pro unboxing and first impressions
Hands-on coverage
MacBook Pro first hands-on!
Apple MacBook aluminum and glass super-shiny hands-on
Apple 24-inch Cinema Display hands-on
Product announcements
Apple finally refreshes Cinema Display: 24-inch, LED backlit, $899
MacBook Air gets NVIDIA graphics, storage bump
Apple's MacBook gets a fresh face, NVIDIA graphics, original drops to $999
Apple's all-new MacBook Pro packs new NVIDIA GPUs, glass trackpad
In-depth / details
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 M, 9600M GT get official in new MacBooks
Apple's Steve Jobs calls Blu-ray "a bag of hurt"
MacBook Pro requires logout to switch graphics modes
Intel: MacBook Air sheds custom CPU for 45-nm Penryn "S"
Multi-finger MacBook trackpad gestures demonstrated on video
New MacBook Pro running HybridSLI?
all i can say is price rises in Australia has killed it all.
Thanks for stuffing us around........Again.
@ Ben
Dover
Weak US dollar == lose for all y'all.
How long will the spotlight be on the fruit because of their mediocre update of their notebooks? Indefinitely?
Too bad the updates leave me very very dissatisfied. That glass surface, not enough connectors, MB is still very heavy. A lot heavier than my over three years old 13,3 inch Sony Vaio...
What is Australia?
To oZ
The Australian dollar has tanked. Down 23% against the US dollar in the last 2 weeks
Apple asked you guys to "think different":
http://9gag.com/home/funnyrabbit
STUPID!!
"Apple 23-inch Cinema Display hands-on"
dont you mean 24?
No, Engadget got their hands on the newly released iKnife and cut off an inch of the screen.
can i have the leftover piece then?
Perhaps they're being sarcastic about the size of the GIGANTIC black bezel which swallows the display in a sea of expensive glossy blackness...
How many of these did they sell in opening day?
The server was whimpering quietly in the corner when i tried to have a look, 30 mins or so after the end of the presentation!
Apple- make loads of money from these,
- redo the macmini
- send me one for free please.
Cheers Steve
Unless it was an artificial slow down to make people think they're going to run out of merchandise.. The same thing some clubs will do with lineups - make a huge lineup outside even though there's only 3 people standing in the corner of the dance floor.
For the record.. I'm a Mac user, but I wasn't overly impressed with these new laptops. Sure, the cases are very slick and nice, however the gloss, extra bezel (on the Pros), having to log out to change graphics (likely change in software updates), no DVI (HAVE to use an adapter again..), etc. I have a MBP 2 gens before this one and still really enjoy it.
I just got back from a 45 minute drive to the Apple store in Gilbert, AZ a was told "No Laptop for You" not even a DEMO setup to look at! Called the store over at Chandler Fashion Center and got the same answer. What the heck I thought this a.m. was the in store release date? Oh well so much for impulse buy Steve, maybe I'll get a Sony.
I don't understand the thing about the cinema screens. Are they still selling the older, larger ones? Because they said the newest one was made especially for macbooks (obviously you can use it for other stuff), surely it can't be replacing the older ones if there's nothing to replace it with?
http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9178LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTI1Njg
http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9177LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTI1NzI
http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9179LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTI1NzM
They're still in the online store.
I say Engadget should give away one in a contest.
(and automatically give the guy who thought of the idea of the contest one as well)
I second that. All in favor say aye.
Apple definitely won't be getting any of my money now. The uberglossy screen is a big problem for me. Also, they are now ridiculously expensive in the UK.
Same here in Australia as mentioned..... Apple are going to loose sales.
HEY GUYS listeennn up aryt, this goes to all apple haters and lovers.
Here at apple we made a major leap in technology this year...our laptop case!!! woohoo!!!!!
more money for us baby!
No they're not going to lose sales, Take for example a Dell XPS and give it a LED screen, 802.11n & a 256mb Nvidia graphics card and same amount of Ram, i'll bet you it will cost you $100 more than the Macbook, the Dell also doesn't have the 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM as the Macbook, it has something like 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and at the end of the day can a dell run OSX & Windows? i don't think so, the dell is also a huge piece of plastic
yeah but at least you can get a dell doing 80% of that for 499$.. its all about compromise. And there is excellent laptop out there less pricy. Apple product dont have a good money/performance ratio.
Boards of Canada fucking rule.
I'm typing this on a brand new macbook and while it's just what I needed - I'd have to say that a bit more wouldn't have gone amiss. It's also my first Mac so I'm trying to get my head around it all. I am getting a strange amount of freezing though.
It would cool if they offered these in some different anodised aluminum colors, at least black.
Keep dropping those prices, Apple...MAYBE another $300 price drop and I'll reconsider making the switch. Why would I spend twice as much money on a laptop that I only need for checking email/web and managing itunes? I doubt the average user is using their laptop for much more than this...
Get a iphone. Or an iPod. For such simple features.
Ever need to use MS Office? For that you need an actual $1000 computer. Sorry.
So you're saying you want it both ways: You want Apple to make a laptop as cheap as everybody else's, and you also want the laptop to have everything that Apple puts into them like the new mutitouch glass trackpad, the solid aluminum construction. Because that stuff doesn't cost money, right? Apple is just overcharging for no reason, right?
Yeah.
Did I miss something? What did BJ say about the trackpad and all aluminium body?
decoy - er, were you just not paying attention or something? BJ is asking for a product that costs more to make to be as cheap as products that cost less to make. The way the Macbook is built and things like the glass trackpad definitely factor into the cost, so it's entirely relevant.
So many people just want things to be cheaper without taking anything else into consideration. Hey I wish I could buy a new Ferrari for $12,000 too, but it's not going to happen. I don't think Ferrari wants to sell their cars at a loss, and Apple doesn't want to sell their computers at a loss either.
Well, I expect anytime now Apple to announce the next leap in home computing: A method of transferring data between two machines at a distance. Perhaps over wires, or maybe over the air, or some combination of both. and this 'network' of 'interconnected' computers could be used to share data at incredible speeds. And they could call it....iSomething. Man, i can wait for that.
I get it, you're making fun of Apple because you think they didn't do anything new.
Because, you know, everybody has those no-button, glass surface 4-finger multitouch trackpads these days, don't they?
@Zak... Yeah, multitouch trackpad... I don't think I've seen one of those since CES in January from a company called Synaptics (you may've heard of them). OOOPS, I forgot, Apple just developed those. My bad!
And as far as "no buttons", the whole thing's a button and is just a touch-pad version of their "glass" Apple Pro Mouse. Two crappy ideas, no buttons, and lots of glass? I wonder if it's the same special-needs engineer.
Well gosh scabby. If a glass surfaced 4-finger multitouch trackpad with no button has been around for so long I'm sure you can provide a link to one. Right? Yeah, you go ahead and do that, I'll wait.
And yes, there are no external buttons. No, it has nothing to do with the mouse. The mouse does have an actual button, the sensors are what determine if it's a right or left click. And it doesn't have glass anywhere on it. You're batting 1000 here. And yes, I'm sure that because it's a new idea it must be crappy because it comes from Apple. CHANGE IS SCARY.
Steve's blood pressure is 110/70
Can't wait for the upcoming "Engadget Asks: What do you think of the new MacBook Pro?" Poll, and pick "It sucks" without even using a MacBook before!
A better option would be 'it costs too much'
Another Engadget post about the Apple event? Were the other stories not enough?
so, the Apple notebooks still look pretty similar to the Powerbook of yesteryear. Thinner, even less ports, but still pretty much the same.
Opening it up, and voila! looks like a Sony F series. Totally underwhelming.
Dual graphics? pretty late to the wagon. Lenovo has had it for a few months now with the T-series, and Sony has had it for at least two years now.
So it's not cheap, hasn't changed its outlooks, and inside looks like a Sony, fewer ports, no card-reader. It's particularly sad when a major selling point is "user-replaceable battery!"
and just in case anyone wants to accuse me of being a Sony-fan, the last two laptops I bought were pretty standard HP's, before that were two Toshiba Porteges, a Sharp ultraportable, and some other machines. So in fact, I've never bought a Sony laptop before, nor would I, given the performance/price ratio.
It's got a fancy trackpad and is made of a block of metal, both these thing are awesome... but are they awesome enough to upgrade for?
OK guys, here is my all important verdict:
- I don't like it. -
The day I decide to be ripped off, I ll'be ripped off by SONY corp. and bring home a new shiny Vaio branded toy.
If El Jobo wants my cash he's gotta turn out some better tricks.
I like the solid aluminum construction, but I think they are getting away from the Apple that pushes the style boundary. They still make a good product (and if they put silver colored keys made out of aluminum, I might have splurged and bought one along with a few other small changes (DVI))
I would have like to have seen a graphical ipod touch style mouse pad. Or a tablet/eBook reader. Even a small 9" netbook would have been great. Maybe something that has an iPod dock built in. Or a touchscreen. Maybe next time.
too bad the spotlight is barf colored. Seriously I've seen more impressive notebooks by even Dell over the last 6 months. Where's the quad core Apple? Oh that's right. You are more concerned about having the thing be under 1" thick then performance. Losers.
Let me start things off *downranks himself*
what apple should have done if they were going to make the 13 inch the same as the 15" models is just call them both macbooks... thennnn make the 17" model the macbook pro and offer it with a matte or glossy screen.
I'm still trying to figure out the advantages of a glossy screen.. I'm not sure if being able to use the laptop better outdoors will outweigh the disadvantage of glare indoors. I'm thinking it won't
Have you ever tried to carry a 17" MBP around for day-to-day? There is a 15" MBP for a reason, it's the machine most people buy.
If cost is the souring factor, consider that most people that buy MBP's aren't just using them to check their email.
Wow he is really thin, I bet he has cancer.
OK, is this all new apple stuff for the moment rightnow? i'm happy when it's over. thank you engadget.
there is a lot more and BETTER stuff then some new notebooks and PLEASE, who cares about UNBOXING??!!
Glossy screens suck. I'll never understand the marketing for these ... fooling stupid people into thinking that glossy is better.
I love the new aesthetic, but I'm unhappy about the lack of a backlit keyboard on the 2.00ghz base model. Surely it doesn't cost the world to put a light inside and a sensor on the front!
I've placed an order on the base model with the intention of swapping out the HDD to a quicker and larger drive and the hope of installing more RAM if it's user serviceable.
I'm also hoping to god there isn't much difference between the 2.0 and the 2.4 so that it'll be easy to swap in the keyboard backlit parts and maybe even do a slight overclock on the CPU.
Anyone know if the 2.0 is just the same as the 2.4 but underclocked/capped?
They need to differentiate the two models so people have more reason to buy the more expensive one.
Apple is moving towards a new uniform styling across their products, but they had to change the iPhone back and make the iPod touch back glossy.
"but in case you missed anything"
how did an ENGADGET reader miss that?!
Ironically, I think that what apple has done over the past few "enhancements" to there product line is move away from the users they attracted in the first place. I always used a Mac at work (im a graphic designer) and a PC at home. But they are making this increasingly difficult, the loss of Firewire isn't great and also those glossy screens mean I need to proof work on a secondary screen.
I am not a fan of the way that they are taking away hardware features in order to force people into certain directions. I could just about put up with the complete lack of flexibility compared to PC hardware now days but to remove the basics such as connectors is just beyond me. Im not even taking about these things based on price, I would think it was stupid if they had done it on a laptop half the price.
Aesthetic wise, I think the black keyboard is awful, they should have gone with the same design as the aluminum keyboards, I don't mind the border around the screen, but think that it is pretty badly done. If it was more akin to the iMac it would have been vastly better in my opinion.
The new MacBooks are great. Really great. In a slow economy, this may mitigate the R&D investment that Apple made with the MacBook Pro and all its technology. Lower price than the 15", dedicated GPU, aluminium chassis.
Apple needs a NetBook. Low price, basic functionality. Price mark around $799 USD (max).
The most profitable iPod is the Nano. If I were Steve, I'd ship a NanoBook.
I don't understand this update. Yeah the multitouch trackpad might be good (might also be terrible, although Apple has a good track record with these things. The aluminum unibody is a very nice premium feature. The better integrated graphics is a nice feature that will soon be commonplace between this new nVidia chipset and the new Intel Larrabee.
But come on: The old model they are replacing and that has been on sale for ~1 year was $1099 for 2.1Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120GB, and combo drive
Now they're going to charge $1299 and the CPU is actually slower, and there are modest upgrades to RAM and HDD, and optical drive? The actual performances changes are extremely underwhelming, especially given the price boost. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't one of Apple's schemes where they'll fine their early adopters a couple hundred dollars and wait until they completely sell out of the old models at profitable prices, and then will drastically drop prices on the new MacBooks and bump their specs.
Obviously I have have no evidence of this, but I have this very strong reasoned argument: Apple is officially even on their website clearing out the old base MacBook model (at only $100 off) and I'm sure retail locations are clearing out all the old MacBook and MBP 15" models at similarly light discounts. Apple is not producing any of the old MacBooks anymore, so they will run out. When they do, that will leave their cheapest available laptop at $1299. Which won't happen. Not in this market. If anything, looking at the general trend of decreasing laptop prices and the bad economy, they just can't compete if their cheapest model is twice what the average consumer spends on a laptop. Yeah they could be releasing a netbook line for a lower price range but those aren't fully featured laptops... typically no optical drive and either flash memory or a 1.8" hard drive. I think that they have to be able to offer the base MacBook at $1099 at the very most.
Um... the $999 white MacBook doesn't seem to be on clearance. In fact it has a big blue new tag on it:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?mco=MTE3MjA
They're also still selling the 17" MacBook Pro - in the same case as before.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro?mco=MTE4NDY
And just because you buy into the Megahertz myth, doesn't mean that these new processors aren't different.
stores aren't selling the old ones at a discount. apple hasn't stopped making the white or the 17in MBP. and 2.0Ghz 1066Mhz FSB > 2.1Ghz 800Mhz FSB.
I'm not saying the specs are amazing... but have you ever tried to use a computer with a Pentium D processor (dual core pentium)?? My mom's desktop is rated at 3.0ghz and has 2gb of ram, a dedicated video card, and my Mac Mini blows it out of the water at 1.8ghz and 2gb of ram. Admittedly, it doesn't play hardly ANY games, not meaning that, though. I don't play games to begin with.
Hz in computer terms mean almost nothing. It's just a measure of changing voltages.
I have to say that as a 15" MacBook Pro owner that wasn't really considering upgrading at all, I am fairly enamored.
From the purely aesthetic point of view, I personally love the black and aluminum design - it looks clean and sharp, if you ask me. Personally, I think Apple should've kept with that theme with the low-end MacBook by doing away with the white one and replacing it with the old 'high end' black case. Also, I think it's a good idea that they kept the 17" MacBook Pro case unchanged - I'm not a photog, nor do I do video work, but I can understand the general dislike of a glossy screen in those markets. If you're doing that kind of work, I imagine you would want the slightly larger screen and slightly higher resolution and the option for a matte finish.
Aesthetics aside, I like the idea of an easily replaceable Pro HDD... I just replaced my Pro HDD, and voided my warranty in the process (a whole week before it would've expired anyway). It was a fairly easy process, but the thought of voiding my warranty did make me a little weak in the knees (my mother's opinions on the idea of me doing the work myself notwithstanding). The graphics upgrade was expected, and I can't complain... the new chipset is a nice idea too - Intel has never made a 'grade A' chipset.
As far as external ports go... The exclusion of Firewire 400 really doesn't strike me - It's an older format that has been replaced (on all of the pro-products) by it's backwards compatible, larger bandwidthed brother. I've always wished for more USB ports, especially now that the iPod is USB-only, but I have a USB hub that I always keep in my laptop bag (both of my laptop bags actually - I have a chronic fear of lack of connectivity whether I'm using OS X or Ubuntu). DisplayPort is nice, leave it to Apple to toss in it's own version of DisplayPort, but as far as computers go DisplayPort is the future. HDMI is nice, but it's a TV and media center format and Apple is trying to push it's other media center options... I suppose I was taken a little off guard by the inclusion of DisplayPort just because it's quite new.
The trackpad seems like a cool idea, but I haven't actually used it so I can't really comment. It seems to be a logical extrapolation of where Apple was going with it's trackpads.
All in all - evolutionary for sure, but not the terrible update that people around here seem to be screaming and raving about. I'm not going to go out and say Apple just called Jesus down from the Cross to walk amongst us in the land of the gadget-nerds... but I don't get the hate either.
Also: I wonder if John Ive knows he is going to be a CEO whenever Jobs' time passes.
how come whenever apple releases anything it has a huge conference, and engadget has 30 articles devoted to what the same thing, yet when any other laptop/mp3 player/desktop is released, it may get 1 article on engadget, and no birthday party?
Apple buy lots of pub in this blog...
Steve Jobs looks like at death's door. Apple better pick a successor soon.
Does anyone have a bead on how easy it is to swap out the memory/drives on these new models??
For $300 people cry like babies. You get a Mac and OSX. Cut down on the beer, drugs, movies and parties. I'm sure you can save $300 in one week.
Can I get three cheers for the MacBook Air?
I heard mac users mostly listen to black metal... is it true?
Guys, just came finished starting config on my brand new Macbook Pro, I was waiting for this remodeling for 2 years already!
One thing got my attention at the store, the guy told me they are repricing the "old" Pro models, the one that was 2499 now is 1799, you just need to ask them....and you still have the matte screen!!
He asked me if I do not prefer that one.....but I really liked the new one....and I have the old one already...
so, for the ones searching a very good notebook and dont give a s**** for the new design, go to an apple retails store fast!
ah, the new ones are almost all gone.....
seeya
Isn't that the standard previous generation clearance price?