Where is Apple Going with its Pro Hardware ?

apple is leaving their lowest price point macbook on the product line for now at $999
and then just upgrade ram and harddrive if need be by 3rd party

comes with firewire, has the superdrive instead of the crappy combo drive
and you can max it out in ram and hd space for less then 2 - 3 hundred bucks

and can anyone explain why someone would buy the new 24" lcd monitor
instead of just buying a refurbished imac, or some other companies 30"

and really if every macbook already comes with an isight and microphone
is it necesary to market it towards macbook users and put in an isight and microphone and have a rediculous price tag which could get you a 30" monitor from any other manufacturer
 
Last edited:
WOW. I just watched the Apple announcement and I'm shocked.

Hopefully they'll pull a move from their introduction of the MacBookPro Core Duo (which left out FW800 at first) by adding a FireWire400 in an early revision.

And the glossy screen? I used an array of new iMacs this summer at Camp Woodward, and the glossy screens were a problem for video editing.

Apple may as well sell their notebooks without a display at all.

-Andrew
 
Everyone needs to pay attention and quit whining about the lack of a firewire 400 port.

Firewire 800 is backwards compatible. All you need is a firewire800 to 400 cable.

They are inexpensive and easy to find.
 
Humanwire,

The problem is more complex than that. The advantage of previous MacBook Pros was the presence of 2 firewire ports, one 400 and the other 800. They come in handy when you are importing footage via the camera and have tons of other external hard drives connected at the same time. I own 15+ external drives and I have both firewire ports occupied on a daily basis. Even when I daisy-chain them. The new MacBook Pros only have 1 firewire port. It's the first time this is the case (in a pro Apple notebook) in years. USB transfers are sloooooooooooooooow. My 2002 iPod transfers MP3s a billion times faster than my spanking new iPod Touch. I call this a step back.

As a matter of fact this afternoon I brought home a now "old school" 15" MacBook Pro, MATTE screen, 2,5 Ghz, 4GB RAM. Could not be happier. And it came 25% off because of the recent releases.
 
Maybe Apple expects a slew of Expresscard work to happen. If it bombs it works out because soon they'll be really cheap. Then Apple will hurry up and add what's needed. Then again everyone thought the MacBook Air would bomb too.

-Nate
 
Humanwire,

If you actually read the thread, it's not only about the lack of FW port. It might be the majority of it, but the bigger problem is that Apple seems to be sidestepping, instead of moving forward.

Glossy screens? Come on. No quad core MBP? Let's be serious. Removal of ports? Pathetic. It all adds up. It's not just ONE problem, its multiple issues. Besides, in regards to the facelift I think the black looks tacky.

-Kegan
 
Sadly-

"Apple said this week some of its more recent MacBook Pro models may contain faulty Nvidia graphics chips that produce distorted video or fail completely."

This is discussed over at macrumors and other sites. Apple extended the warranty for this issue only for an additional year and many feel that is not the fair solution.

"Despite Nvidia's claim that its graphics chip failures were limited to a certain number of chips manufactured for a certain number of notebooks, the Inquirer in July charged the company with masking the severity of the problem, alleging that "all the G84 and G86 parts are bad. Period. No exceptions."

"All of them, mobile and desktop, use the exact same ASIC, so expect them to go south in inordinate numbers as well," the publication said. "

So owners are saying that either Apple should have done a full recall (but obviously they did not want the expense) or at least guarantee these for the life of the computer (this particular issue).

I am concerned now about buying the last gen mbps. Of course there are people who say theirs has not failed but they've only had them less than a year. And some say they've found failure more likely with labor-intensive work like editing.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ook_pros_affected_by_faulty_nvidia_chips.html
 
Spoke with several people at Apple. The problem is, it's a problem. And even if one is to luck out and their graphics card does not fail in the two years that Apple will cover it with a free repair (and how I hate losing a machine for repairs), the resale value will be very poor because it is a time bomb. Apple did not say that to me, those are my conclusions (after much research and discussion with others).

I am cancelling my purchase now. I hate spending $2000 for something with a known problem. Not sure what I'll do. May look at PCs and I'm a long time Mac person. At least I'd get blu-ray.
 
I was looking forward new MBP, because my FW ports on my 15" are fried and repair would be close to a new one.
But the new ones are a retrograde from a video worker point of view IMHO.
I will probably do the following now: get a 20" iMac with a carrying case. More performance and space(screen/HDD) for less money. Fortunately, if I have to go record sth on location, I go there by car/van anyway. If I can lug around C-stands, I can also carry the 20"...
Maybe the video devision just isn´t profitable enough, I´m sure all those web designers and programmers will like the new MBP enough to make it a success...
I´ll keep my 15" as a very expensive email machine...
 
Spartacus said:
I was looking forward new MBP, because my FW ports on my 15" are fried and repair would be close to a new one.
But the new ones are a retrograde from a video worker point of view IMHO.
I will probably do the following now: get a 20" iMac with a carrying case. More performance and space(screen/HDD) for less money. Fortunately, if I have to go record sth on location, I go there by car/van anyway. If I can lug around C-stands, I can also carry the 20"...
Maybe the video devision just isn´t profitable enough, I´m sure all those web designers and programmers will like the new MBP enough to make it a success...
I´ll keep my 15" as a very expensive email machine...
Click to expand...

It shouldn't cost that much. My magsafe port burned out and when I brought it in (out of warranty) It cost me 80 bucks. It turns out the whole left side of the old mbp has the ports all connected, so when they replaced the magsafe, my firewire and usb were replaced too.

Take it to the apple store and get it looked about before you decide it's too expensive.
 
I myself have never been a huge Apple fan, but that is what I have been surrounded by at school over the past year now. I have really grown to enjoy the Mac environs and the stable OS. I was planning on buying the new one when it was released, but now I am very upset by again another poor business strategy on the part of apple.

The lack of 400 port makes me angry. I know that 800-400 is compatible, its the principle that I now have to buy another fire wire cable to even be compatible.

I have had an HP laptop for about 3.5 years now. It has a gloss screen, and if you are somewhere bright - forget it. Why would they not listen to their prime audience that use the MBP.
1) Photographers
2) Filmmakers
Both rely heavily on the added color precision of the monitor.

The looks and the features can be debated, but the principle of the product has been compromised. You know you screwed up when no one has been like I love everything about the new MBP and I would gladly spend $2000 on a lesser version than the previous.

Looks like I'll stick with my PC and Adobe until Apple can decide that their Pro users are work something to them.

Just a rant.

DJ
 
haha. true story.

for some reason, Apple just adores the gloss screen. and they made an error in judgement by not allowing both the matte version and the glossy (since both pretty much sell the same), but i have no doubt that with all the feedback they have gotten already, they will be introducing a matte version (hopefully.)
 
Very, very disappointing. I own a g4 1.67ghz Powerbook (and a quad core Mac Pro) and have been waiting to upgrade my laptop. I have ranted on the Lenovo thread at the cafe about Apple's lacklustre effort on its previous update vs Sony and Lenovo. Now, its clear: my next laptop WONT be a Mac.


Any way to make an Alienware laptop or a Sony Vaio into a Hackintosh?
 
girlwithamoviecamera said:
As a matter of fact this afternoon I brought home a now "old school" 15" MacBook Pro, MATTE screen, 2,5 Ghz, 4GB RAM. Could not be happier. And it came 25% off because of the recent releases.
Click to expand...

oh good, you got the MBP that you wanted -- i saw in an earlier posting you were having trouble. i ordered the exact same 15", 2.5 ghz MATTE refurbished MBP today. the price was 1000 less than it was a few days ago. crazy.

i am with most of you -- Apple has dropped the ball on their choices for features/connectivity etc..on the new laptops.

bad apple!
 
ecking said:
It shouldn't cost that much. My magsafe port burned out and when I brought it in (out of warranty) It cost me 80 bucks. It turns out the whole left side of the old mbp has the ports all connected, so when they replaced the magsafe, my firewire and usb were replaced too.

Take it to the apple store and get it looked about before you decide it's too expensive.
Click to expand...
That´s of course what I did the same day the ports fried.
The FW ports are directly attached to the logic board, so they have to exchange it for a new one.
Including labor that would be 1260€.
A new MBP is around 1500€ (Both excluding VAT).

I´m actually thinking of selling my 15" once I get the iMac and getting a cheap 10" netbook, for email and surfing.
The only reason for the MBP would be if I had to hit the road for a project, where I need editing on the fly.
Besides that I really hate carrying around a big laptop, just to be able to check my mails at home.

I guess a lot of MBP user will rethink their need for a truly portable editing solution.
The smallest iMac is 850€ (excl.VAT) and offers better specs than my current 2,16Ghz MBP.:beer:
 
I think my posts may not have been clear that I'm referring not to the newest Mbs and mbps released this week but the models before with the Nvidia 8600 gpu. These are the ones that Apple's now selling as refurb and clearance. Even though they have a page about the problem buried elsewhere and the problem is real, they do not warn you of this at the site of sale. People are misled to believe they are safe because they test all the refurbs. It doesn't matter if it tested fine today, this is a faulty card and has a very high chance it will fail in time according to the experts if you follow that link in my previous posts.

"Affected MacBook Pros and symptoms

Among the models affected are those that were manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008. They include the MacBook Pro (15-Inch, 2.4/2.2GHz), MacBook Pro (17-Inch, 2.4GHz), and MacBook Pro (Early 2008).

Customers who own one of these systems should look for instances of distorted or scrambled video on their screen, or the absence of video on the screen (or external display) when the computer is running."

There was discussion that the "early 2008" went all the way to Sept.

Instead of a recall, Apple will repair as these cards fail. However, they will only do this up to two years. After that - too bad. So it means if you're lucky enough not to have the failure up to two years, your resale value is questionable. I don't feel good reselling something like this and not telling the buyer.

"Despite Nvidia's claim that its graphics chip failures were limited to a certain number of chips manufactured for a certain number of notebooks, the Inquirer in July charged the company with masking the severity of the problem, alleging that "all the G84 and G86 parts are bad. Period. No exceptions."

"All of them, mobile and desktop, use the exact same ASIC, so expect them to go south in inordinate numbers as well," the publication said.

Last month, Nvidia shareholders joined the fight by filing a class-action lawsuit, accusing the company of violating federal securities laws by concealing the existence of a serious defect in its graphics chip line for at least eight months “in a series of false and misleading statements made to the investing public.”"

I spoke to a tech who said the number of customers who have had failures is not the majority. Well, most of these are less than a year old. Give it time. He claimed it was the fault of the customer playing games that the card didn't support. That is not what the investigation found and I would not want to be worried that I had to treat my $2000 mpb with kid gloves.
 
I think there's a small misunderstanding about the screens. They are not the "glossy" screens Apple used to produce in the last generation of MB and MBPs, but instead an LED screen with a glass covering. They are two different beasts. Now, this isn't to say that the glass screen is any better, but it is different, and in my opinion, better than the glossy screen. People try out the iMac glass screen in the store and hate the glare, but forget that there's like a hundred harsh lights in the ceiling. Of course it looks like trash.
Personally, I like to cut in a darkened room, so glare has never been a problem. Even sitting in a room with a good mount of light I have no problem, and I'm on a first gen MB with the glossy screen.
I went to the Apple store last night and played with the new MBP. It is insanely nice. A very nice, well built machine. The FW800 doesn't bother me, as it's backwards compatible, and you can get a FW400->FW800 cable for $6 on monoprice. No big deal. The Display Port thing is slightly disconcerting, but it is future proof (for now), so I don't mind that. I think the hardware is quite amazing, to be honest. To pack that much power in a notebook is pretty impressive.
Overall, I feel the sentiment of many people when they say that Apple has done them wrong, but honestly, it's a solid machine, with outstanding performance capabilities. If you don't like it, vote with your wallet :)
 
Thanks, ogopogo, for that. I want Apple to succeed because I don't want to switch from fcp. Many have said it wasn't the issue of glare as much as the trueness of color in the matte. I know we can have an external monitor but what is your opinion about that aspect of the new screens?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top