The New MacBook

 

Brand new design, brand new chipsets, brand new MacBooks!

(Side note! Every time I refer to the MacBook, it also applies to the MacBook Pro unless specified)

2 days ago Apple announced a new line of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. They were everything the rumors said they would be! Built using a new production method (Yes, the Brick rumor was right) the MacBook is now aluminum like its big brother the Pro.

In my opinion, they look amazing. The new LED screen, the perfectly contoured edges, the slightly curved lid, everything yells APPLE! If you compared the old MacBook and MacBook Pro with a PC notebook, you would see Apple’s products were years ahead in terms of design. I can’t imagine how many years ahead they look now. Well, a lot at any rate.

On the inside there is some new stuff too! A brand new chipset from Nvidia makes graphics performance 5 time faster than the previous Intel chipset. For the MacBook Pro, there is also a brand new GPU also from Nvidia. Interestingly, Apple put the chipset and the GPU inside the Pro instead of just the GPU. This gives users a choice between the two based on what there current graphics needs are. If you want to save battery life, switch on the chipset. If you want full power, turn on the GPU!. Unfortunately, there isn’t the option to use both at once. Looking to the future, the ability to use both as well as the CPU would be an amazing feature. Especially considering that Apple is considering harnessing the GPU in they computers to handle everyday tasks is the next version of OS X.

I also have to bring something negative up. The price. Not the price in the US, but the price in Australia (this might apply to other countries outside the US) It seams that the recent financial crisis as well as the diminishing Australian dollar mean that the Mac is becoming even less affordable. In Australian dollars, the cheapest model of the new MacBooks cost AU$2100. When the difference is converted into US dollars, we here in Australia have to pay nearly US$200 more than you do in the US! This is the same for the MacBook Pro. The price point of the new lineup might be a turn off for many people. Human psychology is telling me that if the prices started at $1999 and $2999 they would sell a lot more.

All in all, I really like the new Apple notebooks. This marks a momentous occasion for Apple, no more fully plastic computers (Yeah, yeah I know about the Mini but nobody buys that!) If I had a spare AU$3200 lying around, I would pull out my check book and buy one right now! That is, if I had a check book…

Apple Event Announced

October 14, 2008

Apple Campus

Update: The iTunes Review Process

This is a follow up to my previous post about the terrible application review mechanism that has been implemented with the new iTunes Application Store. Basically, people had been able to review iPhone and iPod touch applications without buying them (or just downloading them in the case of free applications). This led to pathetic, stupid and even racist reviews infiltrating what is known as Apple’s walled garden.

Prior to recently, the walled garden was being vandalized. Thankfully, in recent weeks Apple has silently changed their review process. Now, you have had to have downloaded/purchased an application before you have the right to review it.

To me, a person who doesn’t want to leave the walled garden, this is excellent news. It does two things for the iTunes Store. First, it prevents idiots writing trashy reviews that are incoherent, full of abbreviations and even racist and derogatory remarks. More importantly, it gives some legitimacy to the Applications Store and allows it to be used for it’s original purpose; to inform people about the quality of an application before buying it. We will now only see people who have forked out the cash to buy an application reviewing them based on their experience and not just by looking at the pictures. It’s no lie when I say that only dedicated, helpful people are the one’s writing reviews. Finally their valuable word will be able to be heard above the noise and we will see useful information that will help us in making a final judgement about an application.

Unfortunatly, there will still be noise. There will still the people who, however well intentioned they are, will only write “This app is bad. Don’t buy it” but at least Apple is on the right track. I mean, you just can’t prevent people speaking their minds (in the US anyway, it’s much more clear cut for you people).

‘Brick’ Explained

Today the world (of those who cared) found out what the rumored ‘Brick’ referred to. 9to5Mac has revealed that the ‘Brick’ refers to a new manufacturing process. The process allows MacBook casing to be made out of a solid block of aluminum instead of different pieces. Oh yeah, this also lets onto the fact that new MacBooks are probably going to be aluminum instead of plastic.

Yes ok, this sounds really boring on paper but in the real world it would mean the slickest and most gorgeous Apple notebooks you have ever seen. If you have seen the new iMacs you might have noticed that there is seamless joining between the aluminum face and the curved sides. This means there is no need for unsightly screws and such, just aluminum joining to aluminum. Imagine this look for a newly designed MacBook (and hopefully Pro as well). At the moment the MacBook Pro looks amazing, but what I hate is that strip of plastic around the edge of the body and around the screen. This new manufacturing process would get rid of that ugly plastic strip and would extend the aluminum to the edge of the device.

This may make no sense to you what so ever. If you would like to find out what I’m talking about, go to your local Apple Store and have a look at the MacBook Pros (and at the same time, could you please leave my blog page open on the screen as you leave. Thanks). Even if you don’t care about this new manufacturing process, you have to acknowledge that it would make the Mac notebook line leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the PC market in terms of design. This is inclusive of the fact that they are already leaps and bounds ahead, but this will mean leaving PC notebooks looking like they were during the ’90s.

Steve Jobs was right, exciting times are ahead.

(Yes, this proves more then anything that I am an Apple fanboy)