Apple quietly updates $999 MacBook, again -- goes back to school with free iPod touch
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 27th 2009 6:52AM
posted May 27th 2009 6:52AM
Update: Looks like the battery might have been given a nudge to a rated 5-hours, up from 4.5.
[Thanks, Jasper K., Daniel, and Anshu P.]
Read -- MacBook white
Read -- back to school
I guess we will see similar bumbs on the Aluminium Macbooks soon.
whats a bumb?
So you think that they will come out with new Macbook specs? I really want the Aluminum Macbook, but if they are coming out with better specs I will wait.
I am in the market and I have been waiting on getting a new Macbook for a few months due to this special, I guess I can wait until June 8th when they might hint at a new Macbook.
@CAHLITO
B and P are fairly close on the keyboard, typos are expected when the distance is that close.
Anyway, I'd by one of these but they are still too expensive for my poor college ass. Plus I'm going to need money for a Zune HD.
Guys - I hate the engadget comment system!
I already posted that I am wrong, but the comment system won't publish it... I'm not a native speaker, I hope my mistakes are therefore excused :).
@Brianjoy77: No, they will not come with new specs for the unibody-MacBooks. Their plan is to keep the current specs for all eternity.
Duh! Of course they are going to improve the specs sooner or later!
@CAHLITO
"B and P are fairly close on the keyboard, typos are expected when the distance is that close."
really? B and P are close ? ...i'd love to see which bizzaro keyboard you're using.
@Mitch
"B and P are fairly close on the keyboard, typos are expected when the distance is that close."
really? B and P are close ? ...i'd love to see which bizzaro keyboard you're using.
@Mitch
Unless you're looking at a completely different keyboard than I am B and P are nowhere near each other...
sorry about the double post... tagged the wrong person initially.
engadget comment system fails me again :p
@rj and aj121489
I think a *SWOOSH* perfectly captures the sound of Mitch's sarcasm not registering to you two.
I love these promotions, mainly because last year I got a free iPod and a printer out of buying me MacBook. :)
lol i cant tell if you guys are trollin or not...
clearly mitch was just being a giant cave troll and being sarcastic :D
Only Apple could get away with calling plastic "polycarbonate"... I love it.
Please use english when speaking. thank you
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270397302877&viewitem=&salenotsupported
"B and P are fairly close on the keyboard, typos are expected when the distance is that close."
really? B and P are close ? ...i'd love to see which bizzaro keyboard you're using.
CAHLITO, he's using the keyboard that enhances one's sense of humor.
oops! starting to share disdain for this commenting system.
CAHLITO: sorry, it wasn't your post i was responding to.
rj: it was meant for you.
@Khattab I hear ye.
"Quietly"
hardly going to make a big song and dance about 0.13ghz are they?
Yup cuz they are dancing around singing right now...
they didnt quietly update it or anything.
@ShirkPower
Did you actually understand what you replied to?
Its my screen, its been doing weird shit since sp2. I apologize,
i only saw the last line
Subtle fanboi is subtle.
wait. they're still selling these white plastic macbooks? what abt the black ones
Nope no black macbooks. The black ones have been replaced by the unibody macbooks.
In a mac future theres a small minority of white people...... And the rest of the population is aluminum.....
You know, I always wanted to like the black macbooks, but everyone I've known who had one had glossed the matte finish on the outside within a matter of months. It just looks so nasty. I really hope that's not the same material they're going to make the matte iPhones out of, I can't stand that greasy matte-glossy look.
they don't make those anymore...they only continued the white ones.
Mike Hintz
ryan. really? i prefer the matte finish to the glossy, at least you can clean up the greasy spots once in a while whereas glossy scatched is very obvious. also the white one ages like milk, after a while you can see the difference of white between the keyboard keys and the dirty palm rests. apple keeps the white because it suits their image.
Sweet Deal.
Dam those Ipod Touches are flying off the shelves its crazy.
No wonder microsoft is releasing their own ipod touch
I could get any other laptop with 250GB, 2.17ghz and 3GB for less than half the price. This is not a sweet deal.
Hey fanman, no one cares. Really they don't.
no one care if they throw away $500 bux away? really???
wow.
you people must be super rich!
paying for $1000 for a laptop just to check email, music, video. and then boot into windows cause you dont have softwares in mac. and then boot back into mac. sounds like u have time to boot back and forth. must be nice to waste both money and time
Not everyone boots back and forth.
And some people need an OS with decent memory management.
PC Fanboys still don't get it. Hardware is obsolete in 6 months... its not about the hardware specs. That's not what we buy. Apple has always maintained that they are a SOFTWARE company. Apple gets elegant software. The iPhone is a paper weight without it's UI. Period. Is it worth twice the price? In my line of work (video) when the difference between my son eating and not eating is a stable system... yes it is.
@jonshipman
Funny, the only desktops we have in the office that actually have (or need) more then 2 gigs of memory are the ones running OSX and they're not even used for graphic design, video editting or run VM's. Plus not using ram you have is like just throwing away the money you spend on getting that extra pair of ram modules (40 euro's per two gig or 90 euro's in Apple money)
what is there to get?
im not a fanboy.
in my line of work... website designing, having a nice quad core, 37 inch monitor, 4gb ram, vista OS, and having all the softwares/hardwares i ever desire is priceless. it hasnt crashed nor locked up. the computer is powered down whenever im on vacation or extended leave. and i dont get viruses or malwares because i dont download contraband nor venture onto shady websites.
They are probably about ready to drop the 8GB model.
It's still a nice design, and a metal case is not something people at this price range need, but they could at least put the new trackpad in or something.
Though it may look nice I´m surprised to see they actually still sell it. I dont know anybody whose shell hasn´t cracked. For some reason Apple´s plastic tends to crack rather fast in the low end models compared to other laptops and not to mention they sometimes tend to become seriously warm.
I would prefer to see just a metal casing (unibody or not... who cares) and if you like white just powercoat it white, heck you could even toss in a color line by doing so. I do wonder why the upgrade is so minimal, maybe this has todo with the fact they tend to get seriously warm?
They only still make it because it's cheap, why would they make it more expensive by putting new parts in?
My plastic MacBook cracked in an insignificant location (under the right wrist rest) after about a year of use, but I took a bad fall a few months after that (slipped on ice, landed on my butt and the machine) that crushed the CD drive opening. The computer still functions, which is nothing short of amazing IMO but it convinced me that the next Mac laptop I buy will have a metal case.
Of course, with WWDC coming up I'm not about to buy a Mac anytime soon, at least not until the price drops and configuration changes are announced and in effect.
@JZ
I have the late 2006 White Macbook with not one crack. I travel all over the country (broadway national tours) so it's not just sitting idle on a desk. The build quality is quite good on these things.
I got a bad one that cracked at the front, then I got a good one as a replacement.
My 3-year old black one is cracked in 3 places now. Really pathetic, Apple. I'm serious. I'm not saying a laptop should never wear out. I'm just saying that this is a design flaw, it was preventable if they had bothered to do it right. They all seem to crack under the right wrist wrest.
Mine's been through hell and still works, so it's made well. But I really think they could have also made the case properly so it doesn't crack.
take it to apple and they will replace the cracked pieces for free within 30 minutes. they know it's a flaw and warranty is not necessary. let's see dell do that.
people dont "need" a computer. Its a "want"
Hold up there! They didn't bring down their entire site for this major upgrade!?!?! But how could they do that? Does Apple have some new future technology that allows them to modify the contents of their site without taking it down? That is amazing - Apple rulz!
P.S. Engadget, I subscribe to your feed through google reader and I had 8 entries for this story 'Engadget's recession antidote: win Radius earphones for iPhone 3G!", which seems to be gone now. And over the past few days I've seen a few stories that show up 2 or 3 times (again, just in the feed) and only one of them links to the real story - what gives?
System woes, we're working on it. If you can put up with our shit comment system then duplicate RSS entries should be no problem. Fortunately, we're working on comments too.
Thomas
I've had the same thing happen.