Yes I know I’m rather slow, and I’m quite behind at bringing this out. Many articles have already been written about these since they came out last week, but I definitely want to write my own, and if you want to read it, then go ahead. If you don’t, hit the back button.
I’m not going to describe what they look like, since you can just go to http://www.apple.com and check them out yourself. If you haven’t yet, you can go now and then come back and read this, since it’ll be a lot easier on you.
Let’s start with the MacBook. I think that the new MacBooks are mostly pros over the old ones. The new screens definitely is great for consumers, especially with the LED backlighting. And the lower weight makes the new MacBook a lot better for travelers, although it doesn’t make much difference anyways since it’s only half a pound. However, the new aluminum look makes it more like the MacBook Pro than ever, and is a plus.
However, the lack of firewire 400 on the MacBook–yes they dropped FireWire–is amazingly stupid. What about those schools who have old firewire cameras and who need to update their technology? There goes the Macbook. At least, the new ones. They’ll be buying that plastic one. And what about target disk mode? Where is that going? Transferring your files over through Time Machine is great, but it’s not as good as target disk mode, nor as fast. FireWire is much faster than USB 2.0, and is very important for some who cannot afford the Macbook Pro but still want to use their firewire hard drives.
Another plus which I forgot to mention is the trackpad. Before, Macs only had one button. Now, they have none. The new trackpad, made of glass, is much larger than the previous one, and has no button because the entire trackpad is the button. This may sound very confusing, but it’s quite simple once you use it. You can still use two fingers, one to click and one to move the mouse around. It’s just that, instead of having a button, you just tap down anywhere on the trackpad (it’s noticeably harder to click near the top) and it works. And I find it quite useful. However, the only way to know how good it is is to try it out yourself; i know you have a lot of inquires about clicking, dragging, and all that, but trust me, it all works like before.
The new 4 finger gestures are amazing. On my current Macbook Pro, I have to press Fn+F9 for Expose to launch. The newer keyboards, you can just press F3. And on the latest one, you can just use 4 fingers and swipe down on the trackpad in order to activate expose. It’s amazingly easy to use, and very useful once you’ve started. After coming home from the Apple Store, I find my current trackpad very small and irritable. I would definitely use the trackpad a lot more often if there were the gestures on it.
Before we go to the MacBook Pros, let’s talk about Apple’s new Cinema Display. Yes, they released a new Cinema Display that is currently only for notebooks, and will start shipping in November. And in my opinion, it is amazing. At the Apple Store, it looks beautiful, it’s 24 inches and it’s LED backlit. It also has speakers, iSight, and Mic, all built in, as well as a 3 port USB hub. It also has a built in MagSafe, so you can just take your laptop out of your bag and plug it in without plugging in the power brick first. It saves quite a hassle, and seems very useful for college students or people who travel around a lot but will return to the same place everyday.
The screen just looks amazing, and although it’s glossy, it doesn’t look as bad. The color is also very nice, but definitely not for graphics designers. If you’re a graphics designer, stick with the old cinema displays, which have much better color quality.
The new screen simply looks like a better iMac. Unlike the iMac, the screen doesn’t have the silver border around it, so it looks more like a screen than a fat piece of aluminum. It also looks more widescreen. Also, the back of the display is made of aluminum, which looks amazing. I really like this new screen, and give it a good plus.
And now, we get to the MacBook Pro. It’s been changed the most out of everything, and it’s been made just waaaaay bad. Yes, I don’t like it at all. And I’m going to tell you why.
The new display is brilliantly ugly. Glossy, along with glass on a pro machine? If it was just glossy, then it would be more tolerable, but glossy, with glass? That’s like a mirror. I went to the Apple Store and saw myself in the screen. Not what I’m looking for when I’m trying to use my computer.
All the ports have been moved to the left side, which sounds great, but is rather miserable, because now, there’s no FireWire 400 port on the Macbook Pro. Theres FireWire 800, and there’s an adaptor, but seriously, why would you want to pay extra money after coughing out 1999?
The SuperDrive is on the right side, which is great in terms of usability. Often, when I have my Mac on my lap, it’s rather awkward to insert and eject CDs/DVDs since it comes out in the front. Although it’s not a big deal, it’s definitely a hassle.
The new Mini Display Port is also quite annoying. Sure, it’s nice and small, but doesn’t have as many features as a full DVI port. Apple keeps stressing about how it’s 10% smaller than the DVI port, but I don’t really give a damn, because it hasn’t made the MacBook Pro any smaller. It’s still 15 inches and all, but with a little bit more aluminum. Big deal. The Dual Link DVI on the MacBook Pro was capable of using 30″ displays. And the new ones can as well–it’s just that, you have to buy an adaptor for 100 bucks. Not at all very nice. First, they take off the Apple Remote, now they’re trying to make cheap money off this? Some people may not be concerned about this, but I am, because Apple saved themselves money of making a DVI port on the MacBook Pro and caused you to spend more money. AND they took off the FireWire 400 port, another cheap attempt to make money.
Some pluses are obviously the new trackpad, and the new MacBook Air style build, and of course, the unibody. I don’t like the new box though; I feel that Pro products should be different from consumer products. Why is the new box white? The black box the MacBook Pro came in felt like a difference that was made between it and the MacBook. This obviously isn’t a big deal, but feels kind of shameful, because I have come to like the black boxes. I think the next Mac I get might have to be either a MacBook or a Mac Pro. Of course, a Mac Pro is a rather unsuitable machine for college, but it’s true that it works for it. Although I’d have to deal with quite the annoyance. Perhaps I should get an iMac and MacBook Air combo? Oh yea, the MacBook Air!
Yes, the MBA was updated too. No, it still looks the same, and yes, it still has a trackpad with a button, but the Air’s trackpad is big enough. But the thing about it is that they updated the hard drive, and as well as the graphics.
Wow I’m stupid. I totally forgot about the new graphics in the MacBooks/Pro. Yes, the Macbooks now use the Nvidia GeForce 9400M, which is an integrated graphics card that uses 256MB of DDR3 memory off your system RAM. Although it’s integrated, it’s 5X better performance wise than the old card, and when I was using the MacBooks at the Apple Store, it definitely was different.
And on the Macbook Pro, there’s the 9400M as well, but there’s also the 9600. The Macbook Pro now comes with 2 graphics cards. When you want to save battery life, use the 9400M, and when you want more power, use the 9600. The new 9600 comes with 256MB of memory, and the higher end model comes with 512.
That’s about it. The MacBook family definitely saw some good and very bad updates. And one thing I’m sure of is that I’m not getting a MacBook Pro anytime soon. Mac Pro looks sooo good… maybe someday! 🙂
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