[Machound]

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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.:)

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I have two Bluetooth mice both of which suck batteries empty in under a week. I was asking about Bluetooth 2.0 mice which are supposed to have better battery life due to shorter burst transmission. I haven't seen one of those yet. Have you?
For those people lamenting the demise of Firewire 800, I have three FW800 enclosures and three FW400 enclosures. I don't notice any speed difference between them for day-to-day work. Uncompressed HD video editing is another matter but most people are going to be using PowerMacs for that, not iMacs or laptops. You can still use your FW800 drives just fine with a 400-to-800 cable. I do this all the time when I move one of FW800 enclosures to my Mini.
I did like the dual FW bus design that allowed me to plug/unplug drives on the 800 bus while my drives on the 400 bus were busy recording 1080i TV from my EyeTV 500.

[tomtom]

Yes it did, so much so I emailed the page to a friend to see if it was just me.
To me the page is even worse or a reasonable quality Windows XP desktop.
I increased front size but even then I was not motivated to bother reading.

[Tau_Myx]

Firewire 800 is dead. A technology like this will only catch on if someone takes the lead in getting it out there. Apple and USB are a good example - USB only caught on because Apple took the lead in creating a market for USB products.
I suppose maybe Apple has decided that 800 isn't sufficiently different then 400 or Serial ATA to justify new connectors and the cost.

[Jamus]

Come on now! No modem? Does that archaic yet necessary 56K modem really take up that much room in the laptop enclosure?
How many road warriors want yet another item that they have to take with them?
Two steps forward, one step back...

[ffalacioso]

And up to now, no one here said a word about the graphics card. It's a Mobility Radeon X1600! This marks, I hope, the depart from the Apple habit of selling third rate, old, poor video cards it found at the backyards of ATI and Nvidia as "blazingly fast" new technology. Heck, this X1600 card is really new and fast, and the very best ATI has to offer in terms of speed for power consumption. Launched in December 5th, this card has up to now not appeared in any laptop save one from ASUS, in Asia. Reviews say it's as good or better than similarly top-notch Nvidia GeForce 6800 Mobile. Those that buy a Powerbook can say they have the really best. Any comparisons with Dell notebooks will have to take this card into account.

[jhewell]

Will this thing run Windows?

[edwho]

As someone who uses a powerbook when he travels to keep in touch, I think you overlooked the biggest loss:
No built-in modem.
Sure many hotels have broadband or airport, but NOT ALL do. Also, many of my relatives don't have broadband - my parents are takling about getting it, but my grandparents are on a fixed income so can't afford it, and my brother lives in a rural area. The modem is absolutely essential for me, so I consider moving it to a USB add-on a real step backwards.
Also, I'm fine with it using the new card technology, but in a quick look at a couple of web sites, I couldn't find any ExpressCard devices for anything. I was hoping someone made a modem, at least.

[drillbo]

According to the intel page on Apple's site, certain applications may not support Rosetta, especially those that require real-time motion graphics. I'm guessing that this means that video and sound applications may not work very well under emulation. Until these apps run on intel, a G4 may still be a better choice for video and sound pros.
In any case, the lineup seems kind of messy right now. I'm hoping that the regular MacBook is introduced very soon.

[BobVB]

it antialiases into illegibility. screen capture

[jbh001]

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FW800 will eventually give way to eSATA. It's future is dead people..move on.

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Agreed. the only real product out there for FW800 is external hard drives. FW400 is more than adeuqate for cameras, camcorders, and such.
USB 2.0 is nominaly on par with FW400, although FW400 has better thoughput than USB.
eSATA @ 1.5Gbps would be on par with FW1600, if it were more than theory.
eSATA @ 3.0Gbps would also be on par with FW3200.
eSATA @ 6.0Gbps when it comes out in 2 or three years has no FW equivalent (no such thing as FW6400).
1000BaseT (1G ethernet) is on par with FW800 (p1394c) if it ever gets ratified.
10000BaseT (10G ethernet) has no FW equvalent (no FW9600 or FW12800).
FireWire is fading away. eSATA and 10G ethernet have already surpassed FW. The final nail in the coffin will be a new consumer interface that is better than both USB and FW--unless bewteen Apple and Intel a lot of fresh blood is pumped into FireWireto help it catch up or even get ahead.

[PSM]

WTF no modem? I don't ever WANT to have to use one, but it is a laptop, and I will probably someday find myself in a cheap hotel room, or a building with no Wi-fi or ethernet connection, and it will be the only alternative. Right now I use my cell phone for my alternative internet connections, but it can be uncooporative at times, or I could be in a place without reception. I guess if I can get a modem for the new expansion slot that would be good enough, but it's one more thing to carry.
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the announcement. What thrills me most is that they announced it now. I won't need to upgrade until at least mid-spring, so there will be time to let others be the early adopters without feeling pressured to make a decision. I will probably still have to buy Rev. A, but at least if there's some horrible flaw I will know to steer clear and keep my Albook for a while.
BTW, does anybody else think that MacBook is kind of a bad name for a high-end product? It sounds a little cheap, or like something they would have come up with in the late 80s before anyone had heard of a laptop. I guess it's supposed to call attention to the fact that it's still a Mac despite the Intel chip, but my first reaction was to picture myself saying, "Oh yes, I've got a MacBook" and it made me cringe.
One more thing, I'm sad to see FW800 go, although I never really used it much. I was about to buy a new external HD, and I'm glad I procrastinated, because it would have been FW800!

[minderbinder]

"Until these apps run on intel, a G4 may still be a better choice for video and sound pros."
I think you mean a G5. A video or sound pro generally wouldn't be doing their main work on an iMac or laptop.
These new boxes will give the dual G5's a run for their money, but if you need heavy lifting, you're best off with a quad.

[TheBum]

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In reply to:

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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.

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Looks fine on my PC! Must be your Mac.

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I'm actually looking at it on my work PC. I've tried both Firefox and IE and both are very difficult to read. Maybe it will actually look better on my Mac at home.

[eatapc]

The thing about the old FW 800 port is that it often didn't do pro users any good -- it's on the same bus as the FW 400. Hardware peripherals for video and audio workstations require a separate bus, so the PMCIA cardbus slot gets filled with a combo FW 400/800 card, leaving the built-in port free for the hardware from Aja, Avid or whatever. The lack of a FW 800 port doesn't bother me too much, although the ExpressCard standard will mean I'll have to buy a new card because my old PC card won't work in the new laptops. That's progress, that's life.