New Mac Laptops
16/10/08 20:39 Filed in: Hardware
No surprise here, Steve Jobs makes one of his little
announcements and then a few days later I post my
thoughts. So here we go again...
So it’s laptops that gets some apple love. And I have
to say that Apple laptops always have been the
coolest things from the coolest company.
And what do I have to say about this update? Well the dual graphics thing in the MacBook pro sounds a very good idea to me. I also love the idea of the solid body in both the MacBook and the Pro. Just the thought of the engineering that goes in to that makes me want to get one!
However, there is just one thing (well two actually) that stops me from doing that.
If I could replace my, quite new, MacBook with one of the shiny new models, I would not. The simple reason is that I couldn’t with out selling my soul to the devil, or in this case the Visa credit card company (devil, Visa oh yes they are one and the same anyway :}), but I wouldn’t do it, for one simple reason. No firewire port!
Lots of people on forms and replying to reviews about the MacBook have asked, what’s the big deal about losing this little used port?
Okay I agree I don’t use it much. However when I do use it I need it.
The firewire port makes disaster recovery on the mac so easy. I’ve covered this before, but I’ll cover it again briefly. If any thing goes wrong with either of my two macs, I simply replace either the dead machine or hard drive (simply replace a mac, how much is that going to cost!) plug in my back up drive, boot from it and copy it across to the new mac/hard drive. In less than a day from getting the new equipment I’m back to where I was.
Try doing that on a PC or indeed a new MacBook. I won’t upgrade to one of the new MacBooks without a firewire port. It doesn’t matter how cool the rest of it is. It’s flawed with out that port and my data is just to valuable to risk it!
Now the MacBook Pro’s thats another thing altogether! I’d have all the coolness of the new case and the dual graphics AND the firewire port.
The only thing is the size. I had to MacBook Pro’s before (well one Mac Pro and one powerbook actually) and they are fantastic machines, but they are little on the large side and I have come to love the 13 inch form factor of the MacBook. This would probably not stop me however (the cost would however stop me!)
So the what about the new display?
My first thoughts where that this is very cool idea. However...
Now I’ve had chance to think, I’m not so sure. It is a monitor designed almost exclusively for use with a laptop, so much so that you are going to have to get an adaptor if you want to use it with a ‘normal’ machine. And that adaptor might even exist at this point, so is any one going to buy one considering that fact? May be, laptops are now at the point where they are, for most applications, not a compromise performance wise compared with a desktop, so you can just live with a laptop (I did for while). This said it’s still an expensive set up, by my reckoning $2800 (sorry I have to give the price in dollars since there is no UK estimate on the price of the new monitor). For that same money you could get a mid spec iMac and old white spec white MacBook and still have about $300 left over. Which you could use part of purchase ChronoSync to cover the syncing of the two machines.
The one good thing I do take from all of this is that I don’t think it will be to long before we see a more general version of this monitor, with proper DVI connectors. Maybe Mac world next year?
I can wait, since I can’t afford any of this right now!
And what do I have to say about this update? Well the dual graphics thing in the MacBook pro sounds a very good idea to me. I also love the idea of the solid body in both the MacBook and the Pro. Just the thought of the engineering that goes in to that makes me want to get one!
However, there is just one thing (well two actually) that stops me from doing that.
If I could replace my, quite new, MacBook with one of the shiny new models, I would not. The simple reason is that I couldn’t with out selling my soul to the devil, or in this case the Visa credit card company (devil, Visa oh yes they are one and the same anyway :}), but I wouldn’t do it, for one simple reason. No firewire port!
Lots of people on forms and replying to reviews about the MacBook have asked, what’s the big deal about losing this little used port?
Okay I agree I don’t use it much. However when I do use it I need it.
The firewire port makes disaster recovery on the mac so easy. I’ve covered this before, but I’ll cover it again briefly. If any thing goes wrong with either of my two macs, I simply replace either the dead machine or hard drive (simply replace a mac, how much is that going to cost!) plug in my back up drive, boot from it and copy it across to the new mac/hard drive. In less than a day from getting the new equipment I’m back to where I was.
Try doing that on a PC or indeed a new MacBook. I won’t upgrade to one of the new MacBooks without a firewire port. It doesn’t matter how cool the rest of it is. It’s flawed with out that port and my data is just to valuable to risk it!
Now the MacBook Pro’s thats another thing altogether! I’d have all the coolness of the new case and the dual graphics AND the firewire port.
The only thing is the size. I had to MacBook Pro’s before (well one Mac Pro and one powerbook actually) and they are fantastic machines, but they are little on the large side and I have come to love the 13 inch form factor of the MacBook. This would probably not stop me however (the cost would however stop me!)
So the what about the new display?
My first thoughts where that this is very cool idea. However...
Now I’ve had chance to think, I’m not so sure. It is a monitor designed almost exclusively for use with a laptop, so much so that you are going to have to get an adaptor if you want to use it with a ‘normal’ machine. And that adaptor might even exist at this point, so is any one going to buy one considering that fact? May be, laptops are now at the point where they are, for most applications, not a compromise performance wise compared with a desktop, so you can just live with a laptop (I did for while). This said it’s still an expensive set up, by my reckoning $2800 (sorry I have to give the price in dollars since there is no UK estimate on the price of the new monitor). For that same money you could get a mid spec iMac and old white spec white MacBook and still have about $300 left over. Which you could use part of purchase ChronoSync to cover the syncing of the two machines.
The one good thing I do take from all of this is that I don’t think it will be to long before we see a more general version of this monitor, with proper DVI connectors. Maybe Mac world next year?
I can wait, since I can’t afford any of this right now!
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