Joe Maller.com

MacBook Pro

Here’s the page: MacBook Pro

First thoughts:

  • The top of the screen looks thicker in some photos, kind of out of balance with the sides. The little extra bit of material up there makes the whole machine appear a little bit squat, despite being almost identical to my current machine’s dimensions.
  • FireWire 800 is gone. Expected that, but not quite so soon.
  • Express Card 34 (for 34mm width) is the successor to PCMCIA cards. It’s much smaller and apparently related to PCI-Express. I didn’t even know these were on the horizon. Oh well, my 6-in-1 PCMCIA memory card adaptor just crapped out anyway. ExpressCard is significantly faster than the PCMCIA interface, hopefully we’ll see some SATA interfaces soon.
  • Love the new power connector. I’ve seen so many power jacks break, probably more than any other part on a PowerBook. This plug probably costs 10x more than the previous one, but Apple’s going to save a fortune in AppleCare power-jack repairs.
  • These are Fast. I’m currently using a 1.25ghz PowerBook, which was already bettered by the grey-bar 1.67 G4 Apple’s new numbers are trouncing. I’m probably looking at something like an 8x speed boost come February. Glad I waited, also glad I didn’t steer everyone wrong by advising them to wait on purchases.
  • The name feels a little goofy, especially the “pro” caboose. It’s going to take a while to get used to how that one feels in the ears.
  • This release begs the question about the rest of the intel portables. Is the iBook going away? When, if ever, are 17″ MacBooks going to be released? What about twelves? Six Powerbook models have been sort-of replaced (they’re still for sale?) with two models. iBooks just went from near-parity with PowerBooks to remarkable suckiness.

Other thoughts:
John Gruber agrees that the name is sort of goofy, though less charitably:

[The MacBook Pro] name is terrible I mean just horrible, like some crappy Mac accounting software from 1987″

Cabel Sasser’s already posted MacBook Pro Pics

Engadget, “We think we’re in love”

Michael Tsai: “I can’t think of an Apple product name that’s worse than ‘MacBook Pro.'”


2 Responses to “MacBook Pro” Comments Feed for MacBook Pro

  • Will the new intel Apple computers allow us to load our current version of Final Cut Pro 5?

  • Just pretend you’re Scottish and pronounce it like MacBeth instead. Then at least you’re amused instead of pissed off.

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