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MacBook (formerly iBook)

Comments (8) · 16 May 2006 · permalink

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Categories: Apple,

Just as I was about to shut down the PC for the night, Bloglines brought news worthy of staying up a little longer. Apple have release their consumer line of Intel powered notebooks… the MacBook.

At a first glance, these look nice:

13.3-inch widescreen display (1280 × 800)
1.83GHz or 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
White or Black

Aussie prices look nice too:

$1749 (EDU $1574.10) for 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo, 512MB memory, 60GB HD, White
$2099 (EDU $1888.70) for 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo, 512MB memory, 60GB HD, White (with 80GB HD, $2,189 – so the Black version appears to be more expensive than the white, compare next price)
$2399 (EDU $2159.30) for 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo, 512MB memory, 80GB HD, Black

No word yet on whether a 13.3” MacBook Pro will appear. I’m starting to doubt it, what would be it’s selling point when the non-Pro machines are running 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo same as the base level 15.4” MacBook Pro? Further, the one limitation that the iBook had compared to the PowerBook was it’s inability to extend the desktop onto an external monitor (without a warranty voiding hack). But, according to the specs for the new MacBook, extended desktop is supported:

Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 × 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

The Apple PR site confirms no 13.3” MacBook Pro. The new MacBooks “replace both the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook” (source).

Comments

Permlink: 1 ·
Comment by: Simon ·
Date Stamp: Thursday 18 May, 2006 at 05:58 AM

Richard, you do know that Macs now do Windows? Of course your reasons might be corporate or hardware specific, but the new Macs hardware-wise are nearly the same as a Dell, although more stylish

Permlink: 2 ·
Comment by: Scott ·
Date Stamp: Thursday 18 May, 2006 at 06:48 AM

What I am interested in is the virtualisation tools available on Mac OS X. The Parallels’ VM is already in beta, and VMWare and Microsoft VMs are coming. With virtualisation, you can run Mac OS X most of the time, and fire up a Windows VM to run Outlook and Internet Explorer every now and then (testing site design, etc).

Permlink: 3 ·
Comment by: Richard ·
Date Stamp: Thursday 18 May, 2006 at 11:42 AM

For various reasons, I’m stuck with Wintel PCs. But boy I wish some PC maker would make a laptop that looks as good as a MacBook (Pro or otherwise).

Permlink: 4 ·
Comment by: Simon ·
Date Stamp: Friday 19 May, 2006 at 05:46 AM

Richard, well Boot Camp will have “limited support” – ie, Apple won’t supply phone support for a MacBook running Windows (at least not in beta). So, it may not have the support required for most corporate environments. Will it fully support the running of Windows though? seems that it will.

Why can Apple do it, but not others…? up until now, different markets. Apple knows it’s current community will pay the premium price for a similar-specced machine. Just look at the MacBook prices above – Apple even knows that it’s community will pay $210AU extra for a black version! To me, that is nearly all profit – there’s no price difference between a white iPod and a black iPod! Boot Camp is not an attempt to take a grip on the PC market, but is a clever method of getting a select part of the PC market, the consumer who wants something more from their machine. Whereas other PC manufacturers are focussing on price in order to beat the competition in the PC space.

Permlink: 5 ·
Comment by: Richard ·
Date Stamp: Friday 19 May, 2006 at 10:11 AM

Simon, yes I know about BootCamp – and if Apple sticks with it (I believe it’s still a Beta product), and if they can make Vista work on a MacBook, then I may very well make the jump at some stage. I’ll need to be confident that the WIndows suport is flawless—but I don’t see why that shouldn’t be the case.

Of course, looking at it from the other side: if Apple can make great looking, compact, well-integrated Intel-based notebooks, why can’t anybody else? Probably Sony gets closest to having notebooks that look great, but even their products lack the refinement of packaging design that’s so evident in Apple’s products. Cheers, Richard.

Permlink: 6 ·
Comment by: Richard ·
Date Stamp: Friday 19 May, 2006 at 10:12 AM

Oh, and clearly I’m not the only person thinking this way. Check out journalist Stand Berr’s thoughts here: http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4350/53/

Permlink: 7 ·
Comment by: Scott ·
Date Stamp: Saturday 20 May, 2006 at 04:09 AM

Yeah.

I thought Tiger’s video RAM requirement was tough (my old G3 iBook can’t take the full potential). Now Microsoft has again proved that they are ahead of the game.

Good that Microsoft is giving us another 7 months to prepare ourselves, if Vista is on schedule for early 2007

Permlink: 8 ·
Comment by: Simon ·
Date Stamp: Saturday 20 May, 2006 at 01:03 PM

An update to this, the MacBook with it’s integrated graphics falls short of requirements for Aero – however, most consumer notebooks do! But, a MacBook Pro would do nicely for Vista – but why you would

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