We're not sure what's going on in
Vietnam these days but it's suddenly a hot bed for industry leaks. Perhaps it's due to manufacturers expanding from China to Vietnam's relatively cheap (but limited) labor pool? Or maybe it's because the kids at
Tinhte are just resourceful as hell? Whatever it is, they've just scooped themselves what appears to be an unannounced MacBook update (identifying itself as a MacBook7,1) that includes a faster 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up from 2.26GHz) and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM (an update from the GeForce 9400M found in the current MacBook6,1) -- right, the same CPU and GPU as the entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro but for only $999 (assuming Apple maintains the same entry-level pricing). These minor bumps aren't enough to warrant a model change, however, as we're still seeing "Model No: A1342" stamped on the box. Of course, this could be an elaborate hoax, but
Tinhte has an
impressive track record and these MacBook specs are right in line with what we'd expect since the white MacBook was
last updated in October 2009. No word on when we'll see these announced but it's gotta be soon -- Tuesday perhaps, with a refreshed
MacBook Air if we're lucky. Video unboxing after the break and plenty of pics for Zaprudering at the source link below.
posted May 15th 2010 8:19AM
Man, Tinhte is pretty badass
@Billy
.....and in breaking news, some sort of an explosion have taken out the area surrounding many asian countries, vietnam has been hit the worse, casualties are in the mill........
respsone from steve jobs:
just a country, no big deal.
Steve
sent from my iPhone HD
@KinGKasH
you're trying too hard.
@Billy
Shouldn't the back say "Assembled in Vietnam" ?
@Billy
WWDC 10 has lots of explaining to do!
@Velvet If you try too hard, you blew it. =P
@Billy
The guy in the video is so rough with the merchandise.
@Billy dang, that reviewer is a hell of a pissed off man
@Billy
Sorry for the comment spam.
Where is coverage of the Apple/Gizmodo developments? Is Engadget staying out of it? What about BLam's douchey email to Jobs? No interest?
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/roommate-iphone/
Du ma~!
@Billy these guys must be ballin because the average income over there is about $50 us dollars.
The MacBook line is getting more and more attractive no matter how haters put it. Really. And this is coming from someone who has loved Windows all his life.
@Billy
haha...they let another leak happen, they blewed it !
@Billy
THIS IS FAKE! THERE ARE NO SD CARD READER AS MENTIONED ON THE BOX SIDE STICKER, NO SD CARD READER MENTIONED ON THE CONFIG STICKER, THE MACBOOK IS REAL, BUT THE CONFIGS ARE FAKE!!
TOTALLY PHOTOSHOPPED!!
@revoltracers Indeed. I just bought my first mac (MacBook Pro 15 (core i5 + the 1680x1050 screen) last week. Took a bit to figure things out, but I love how OSX installs apps. I wish windows installed stuff like this in a single file.
@hahajose "SD" probably refers to the SuperDrive; my first-gen unibody, from before the SD card slot was introduced, has the same notation on its sticker.
@hahajose You're an absolute idiot, SD refers to Super Drive.
@Billy Yep, if they will release a macbook that run better than this one. Then this will be great. http://j.mp/core-i5-i7-macbooks-all-size
@Billy
This is the best I could do guys. The freakin household is typically vietnamese with the bangin' and shieznit. (i can't even do homework in my own house) Anyway. here ya go.
Hello my friends, on hand is the new macbook. This new macbook has not been announced by apple. *Talks about the 13 inch macbook and its features that you see in caption.* (damn typical Vietnamese environment. Loud and frickin noisy) The special feature on this one is the Nvidia Geforce 320m. Right now we shall show the machine. The seal…it is difficult to take this seal off. The seal of the machine. *taps machine* Everything is white, all the way to the booklet which is also white. The new style of selling. Before the booklet follows the clasp style, now it follows the thread through style. Here we have the book also white. The disc is not white! Haha. The charger is also a charger of a white color. The charger is starting a new color. The line of the charger is a little textured. Here is another accessory. Here there is another smaller charger adapter. Pulls out macbook* here. The whole machine set is white. Side ports* Over here we have a charger, LAN, mini displayport, 2 usb ports, a headphone port, and lock (Kensington probably.) There is nothing on the other side, back and front. It is made of plastic. Let me open this machine…The shell of the machine is very pretty but it is easy to get fingerprints. We only held it for just a little while and now it has fingerprints already. There is an insulating sheet in this new machine. The whole machine is white, signature of apple. Touchpad *taps touchpad*
@FNG I believe Apple had a warehouse built in Vietnam about 4 years ago. Parts might be manufactured in Vietnam but might be assembled elsewhere. The average salary for citizens in Vietnam working at foreign companies are about $80-100 US dollars a month.
@YearZer0 It's not a single file under OSX. Apps are installed in a directory however in the GUI certain directories show up as a single object that is executed rather than opened when you double click on it. You do also have preference files that are stored under the Library folder. So it is not that different from Windows. Also there is no uninstall tool that comes with OS X but you can get 3rd party ones that ask you if you want to remove the preference files when you uninstall/delete an application. What is really nice about OS X is not that it's easier to install applications but that if you ever have to reinstall your OS the COMPLETE recovery takes about and hour and all your applications and preferences are exactly the way they were before the disaster occurred. It is amazing how little MS cares about protecting and saving your personal data and preferences …
@(Unverified)
What's wrong with Apple's secret police?!
@Tooney
That is not true. My cousins make around 40ish dollars an hour. China's wages are double and is around 100.
@Billy Apple.com looks so lame with iPad on its home page.
@Billy you are right. they are bad ass. cause they have everyone here fooled. the article notes the model number didn't change. the SKU still would. but that was covered up. why? The new part number would validate it as real. The only reason to cover it up is that it is the same part number, proving it is fake
a 3.5 minute long video where he doesn't turn it on and show up him pulling up the profiler and what it says. instead we get a shot off another computer. a shot that anyone in photoshop could fake right along with that label with the specs. note also that we don't see the whole screen. it is kid's play to pull up your faked profiler pic, line it up and then hit the icon to make that the dominant menu with the real profile pulled over to a corner that is not being shown. My 8 year old can do that.
This is just like their iphone which was never plugged in on video, nor did we see them use it on the video. in fact it was noted several times that the screen never moved when when the phone was tapped, flipped around etc. making folks wonder if it was a shell mocked up from all the stuff Gizmodo posted with a photo taped to the back of the glass to appear to be an onscreen image.
Still 2GB of ram?
@appleipad - still Core 2 Duo? 1280x800 screen?
@appleipad
Yeah this is ....pointless.
I mean, so what? PC OEM release minor bump for budget range. Big deal.
@appleipad It's not even a cost issue, it's them trying to justify charging $200 more for the 13" mbp.
I remember, for the longest time the macbook didn't come with a dvd burner but a cd burner/dvd read drive. This was at a point in time when every other laptop in the world moved on to dvd burners. Because it was such a rare component, I'm pretty sure the cost difference was negligible. But the stock macbook config didn't feature a dvd burner to differentiate it from the macbook pro models.
That's why I can not ever recommend a macbook, because it's intentionally made not as good as it can be. It's just there to fill a price point, to get you into an Apple store, and then upsell you a macbook pro.
@pissshivers
well, before the 13inch mb pro, the PVC macbook was the only 13" around ...
as for the current situation, i agree with you, as i would see no reason to pay these relatively few extra bucks for a more sturdy exterior and slighty better tech specs
@pissshivers Uh, by that logic you can never recommend a 13'' Windows Laptop other than the Vaio Z, because the others aren't made to be as good as they can be.
Of course they will offer cheaper products with less features, what else do you expect them to do ?
@pissshivers Here I thought you were going to say never to get a macbook[pro] because you don't even have the option to get bluray, esata, expresscard, or a multitude of other things that have been available or standard on regular laptops for 3+ years.
Still no real Delete key? Dumb glossy screen? FireWire?
Now if only they would show us a Verizon iPhone. That would really make my day!
This is rather sad.... what is up with apple?? First the iPhone 4G and now this..... well, I guess we'll be seeing the new line of iPods leaked from Vietnam soon .
If it's still using Core 2 Duo, they blew it.
@ed i3/i5 wouldn't be much of an upgrade. The downsides would be significant: increased price, increased heat, reduced battery life, greatly reduced GPU power because you'd be stuck with Intel HD Graphics.
@atheos - ULV i3/i5, problem solved.
@atheos
Explain this: http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k176/badasscat/devicemanager.jpg
Everybody claiming that you're stuck with Intel graphics if you go with a Core iX CPU needs to click that link and edjumacate themselves.
@atheos Apparently you are not aware that newer CPUs run cooler and use less power...
@badasscat
funny how you tell atheos to edumacate himself. the only reason why the 13" can't have discrete and an ix chip is because the logic board does not have room for an integrated and a discrete chip. Apple would have to completely redesign the logic board just to make you happy. They chose not to keep prices down. perhaps you should edumacate yourself before you make urself a fool.
@FrozenDarkness
"Apple would have to completely redesign the logic board just to make you happy."
a) They wouldn't be making me happy, because I'm not buying one regardless. No doubt they'd be making a lot of their customers happy, though, and isn't that the point of selling things?
b) Uh, isn't redesigning things kinda the point of a product refresh?
c) The attitude of "we can't change this because this is how it is in the current version" will get you fired at most companies. That's the path to stagnation.
d) If other manufacturers can do it, why can't Apple? Dell makes a 14" Vostro with an i5 and a GeForce 310M; you're telling me one extra diagonal inch (which is what, 0.66" in each dimension?) makes it utterly impossible to fit a chip that's the same size as the one its replacing?
Quit making excuses.
@badasscat
"I'm not buying one regardless."
So why are you here moaning about it? You care so much about other commenters that you want them to get a Dell instead?
"Uh, isn't redesigning things kinda the point of a product refresh?"
Uh, no. You don't have to redesign the machine for every spec change.
"If other manufacturers can do it, why can't Apple? Dell makes a 14" Vostro with an i5 and a GeForce 310M; you're telling me one extra diagonal inch (which is what, 0.66" in each dimension?) makes it utterly impossible to fit a chip that's the same size as the one its replacing?"
First of all the 310M is slower than the custom designed 320M Apple uses. Secondly, the 310M is a dedicated chip, which adds to the cost, size and power consumption of the design (Dell's margins are way lower than Apple's because of volume). Thirdly, that 1" actually does add a lot of square inches - think about the difference between a 15" and a 13", the difference between the 14" is just under half that.
Yes, Sony can fit a 330M (the highest end GPU used in the MBP) in a 13" machine alongside a Core i5 but guess what. It costs $1700 not $1000.
The Core i5-430M in the Dell can match a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo so a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo isn't really that far off and the MB has a faster GPU. It's not like the Macbook is 3x the price and half the speed.
14" Dell i5-430M, 310M $759 (15% faster CPU, 20% slower GPU, 25% cheaper) (it's $799 if you're not a small business and get the XPS)
13" Macbook 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 320M $999
Not that huge a difference and both can play Crysis, though you'll get about 10fps more on the MB and better battery life (5-6 hours vs 3-4 hours).
Why the hell do Vietnamese people like tapping on shit? First the new iPhone now the new Macbook. You can show us without trying to put your finger through the device.
@cameronb8
i guess it is so the viewers (us) get a feel of the material it is made of
@cameronb8 The banging in the background is someone reviewing the Android Tablet
@Kaiser
No u are wrong, they are reinforcing the doors u know ... Apple might be busting in any time. Just like what happened to gizmodo haha
@cameronb8
Seriously its pretty annoying watching him just taptaptaptaptap the entire video...
@Kaiser lol
Man... a lot of stuff going in Vietnam in past weeks