[MW Forums]

The MacBook Pro, the first Mac laptop to ship with an Intel-built processor inside, was unveiled Tuesday at Macworld Expo. The machine will be available in two configurations -- 1.67GHz model and a 1.83GHz model -- in February. more

[mlebarron]

Anyone have any idea of the battery life? I haven't been able to find it so far on Apple's website... or anywhere else for that matter. (granted any site mac related is taking much longer to load than normal at the moment, so my search is slow)

[nittany4]

anyone else find it odd that the powerpc POWERBOOKS are the same price they were this morning? (the iMac is also the same intel v powerpc)
what gives? isn't old technology always discounted on expo day? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[TheBum]

Does Apple's color scheme for the MacBook web pages bother anyone as much as it bothers me? I had to highlight the text in order to read it because the contrast in colors between the text and the background is too slight. You'd think that a company that puts so much emphasis on appearance would have done a better job.

[roadwarrior]

They don't have the specs listed for that. Is it the same as for the G4 PowerBook? Worse? Better?
Might be worth waiting for Merom if Intel can push them out in the next 6 months and the performance/watt numbers I've heard are true...but we'll see.

[orangermac]

This update seems like quite a mixed bag. Oddly it seems that there have been some steps backward:
60 less vertical pixels, no dual layer superdrive, no PCMCIA, no more firewire 800
I wonder why some of these cuts were made, especially the superdrive.
Don't get me wrong, the improvements are amazing. Maybe they just wanted to leave people reasons for still picking the Powerbook?!

[Machound]

In reply to:

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built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

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Apple's been pushing BT 2.0 for a while now, but has anybody seen any mice or other peripherals that actually take advantage of it? This smells like the sort of revolution FireWire-800 was supposed to be but which never fully materialized and is now being EOL'ed.

[neilk2350]

in my mind that's the 64 thousand dollar question. i just checked apple and the web, nowhere is there any mention of battery life. i am a lifelong apple user (since 1984) but i had to switch to a viao for travel because of weight and battery life. yes i hate myself, but i was hoping for a major battery life improvement and some weight reduction. i hope noone buys it untill they at least get some battery life estimates

[TxTom]

I might have missed this, but are these intel chips 32 bit or 64 bit?

[kdevine77]

Well, the PCMCIA card is there, it's just the new standard, "ExpressCard 34."

[minderbinder]

The chips are 32 bit.
What's up with the new slot? Is it compatible with any existing cards?

[ffalacioso]

Well, you're wrong only in saying there's no PCMCIA. There is the ExpressCard slot, the next-generation specification of those cards issued by PCMCIA. ExpressCard is the PCMCIA counterpart to PCI Express. It uses the same connections and bandwidth. Sorry for people who already have PC Cards ou there, but Apple always moved on fast when it could, and time always proved it right. No floppy drives? How could they?
I agree about the lack of Firewire 800 and dual-layer SuperDrive, though. THAT is moving backwards, unlike with the ExpressCard. Could the matter with the SuperDrive be due to supply concerns? They are antecipating a HUGE demand for those notebooks, and maybe they expect a dual-layer drive shortage. I hope that in the next minor revision, when dual-layer is more common and demand more subdued, we shall get dual-layer back. I can't explain the lack of Firewire 800, though.
Then again, I could. Maybe Apple, now with Intel, is preparing to move away from Firewire, a bus that mainly competes against Intel's technologies. Since Firewire 800 is pretty new and relatively few people have Firewire 800 gear, specially in laptops, Apple thought it could drop it now for cost and weight, while mantaining Firewire 400 and sending us a sign that Firewire is going to hit the road.

[Paddy]

Not sure exactly how many Bluetooth mice (or other peripherals) you want to see, but there's a heck of a lot of 'em to choose from. Every major mouse manufacturer makes one. Google them - search on CNET. They're all over the place.:)
That's more than you can say for the FW800 standard, unfortunately.
As for the Apple MacBook web pages - website design 101: Don't put light gray text on a BLACK background! Probably brought to us from the same nitwit who chose the light gray for the text in the search box on the "new" Apple forums. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Info on the new card slot standard:
http://www.expressca...dardsummary.jsp
Haven't looked to see if there are any items available yet - I'd need a CF card adapter.

[hmurchison]

All laptops are moving on from PCMCIA which is limited in speed as compared to Expresscard.
FW800 will eventually give way to eSATA. It's future is dead people..move on.
I'm surprised that they couldn't put a better Superdrive in the unit. I wonder why.
Dual Core rocks! Beats waiting for an eternity for a Powerbook G5