Apple introduces new 'glass' MacBook and MacBook Pros

JGrant (New user):

AHH! Been waiting for this but the price rise is definitely not a welcome surprise

JGrant (New user):

AHH! Been waiting for this but the price rise is definitely not a welcome surprise

Hemma (New user):

Considering the amount the Aussie dollar has fallen, this price hike is actually not too bad. And the fact that its now got a decent GPU, is more than enough to justify the additional costs to the new macbook. I can just see that there are probably going to be quite good runout deals for the current line.

Danny, wouldn't it be require more embodied energy to manufacture each laptop by milling the cases straight from aluminium blocks? The idea of recycled Aluminium is really a statement of ,'Well we are recycling the aluminium.' It's probably not any greener than it was using plastic. Sure there was the environment in mind, but thats just like driving a Hummer with the windows down.

I was watching the event for the mac event, and one of the things that really annoys me is that they pull up a quote of Vista being the biggest missteps in tech history. Although some may agree, but I think that is just a cheapshot by Apple. They should be proud of their products, rather than resorting to defamatory comments as a method of sales.

Considering the design and luxury of an Aluminium and glass laptop, I might actually get one..... and install Vista / Ubuntu on it. With new hardware and materials used.... the price is very reasonable.

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

I sort of agree with you about Apple badmouthing MS, but MS have been bad mouthing Apple in the media too - talking about an 'Apple Tax' - Fact is Vista is a bit of a flop, and Boot Camp gives switchers an 'insurance policy'. No doubt that Apple hardware is the best on the planet. Hands down.

Hemma (New user):

Quoting Danny Gorog:
No doubt that Apple hardware is the best on the planet. Hands down.

I'd say Sony and Toshiba should be worried, and better come up with a pretty damn good strategy ... You walk into JB Hifi, and see these medium grade laptops selling $1,400. Before the launch you'd stick with the ones with better hardware... but now Apple has matched very very closely (approx 10% more) against them on price and hardware.

I say, ditch the badmouth, and they'd get a few more switchers!

Me In Oz (User):

Quoting Danny Gorog:
No doubt that Apple hardware is the best on the planet.

Especially now they are running Intel chips and NVidia cards ;)

Your Average Joe (User):

" ... noted that 1 out of every 3 computing dollars in retail is spent on a Mac..." - Tim Cook

I think someone is either fiddling the stats or telling porky pies here !
I wonder if this includes every dollar spent on PC hardware upgrades for people who are capable of doing surgery on their own computers ?

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

This is just sales in US retail channel, and doesn't include the enterprise market. But I think they are fair because the space that Apple plays in.

plutonium210 (User):

Looks like it's time to say goodbye to an old and reliable friend. My 4 yo PowerBook has been rock solid and only required a full system re-install once since I got it (My fault). The new mid-range MacBook seems to be the value for dollar here.

And as for MS bashing ? ................ Someone has to keep the bastids honest :)

Hemma (New user):

Quoting plutonium210:
And as for MS bashing ? ................ Someone has to keep the bastids honest :)

Is your middle name Mactard?

plutonium210 (User):

Quoting Hemma:
Is your middle name Mactard?

From a long line of Mactards ............ And proud of it !
I love things that just work out of the box :)

Hemma (New user):

Quoting plutonium210:
I love things that just work out of the box :)

What? Like a freshly downloaded copy of Ubuntu? Oh hang on. That was free.

McBanjo (New user):

Quoting Hemma:
What? Like a freshly downloaded copy of Ubuntu? Oh hang on. That was free.

Last time I installed Ubuntu it took me a few hours to download, then an hour to install and then a few days of fiddling to get it into something even half worth using. I don't know about you but my time is not free.

Hemma (New user):

Quoting McBanjo:
I don't know about you but my time is not free.

Well, I guess they should have placed a warning on the front.
'Not suitable for children under the age of 3'

Tin (User):

You either tried it on crappy hardware (the kind that sucks to install even in Windows if you've lost the cheesy CD it came with) or you tried it quite some time ago. I can't stand Ubuntu's ways but I'll give them full marks for making it work.

As for whinging about how long it took to download... Get over it. If you were to download Vista or MacOSX it would take at least the same amount of time if not longer.

Hemma (New user):

Quoting Tin:
As for whinging about how long it took to download... Get over it. If you were to download Vista or MacOSX it would take at least the same amount of time if not longer.

Yeah well if he actually purchased his APC magazines rather than read them at Magnation, he'd find that APC included 8.04 Server and Desktop Editions on their July 08 DVD.

Autopenguin (New user):

I'm not a Mac user, never have been - but I've always been curious. And I've watched the prices fall over the last few years and thought hmm.. maybe I'll go there.

This instant reaction to to the exchange rate is absolutely rubbish, though. Apple products have always had a ridiculous markup versus the actual exchange rate, and now they're going to use "these times" (oh how I despise people using that phrase already) to hike prices even more on goods made on the cheap in China?

FOUR GRAND for a notebook? Holy hell these Apple fans are blind.

TV Bis (New user):

Right on Autopenguin! I refuse to pay such extreme prices for a fashion statement. I could build four decent Pc's for that amount of money. Oh and by the way - I would run Vista on all of them!

McBanjo (New user):

If you're in the market for a Mac notebook you'd be looking at a Macbook. Macbook Pros are for pro-fessionals. The new Macbook models are either $2099 or $2549. Please tell me why this is an extreme price for a notebook computer? Compare it to similar retail notebooks on the market. Then add all the pros of the Mac, and if it's still too expensive, then you obviously can't value the benefits of Mac as high as some. Thus, it was not intended for you, so please don't buy it.

Tin (User):

Quoting McBanjo:
Then add all the pros of the Mac

Remembering of course to subtract the cons... Like the possibility of a massive hardware issue across the range being denied.

$2000 is pretty steep for a ordinary 15" laptop. And apart from that aluminium gimmick, that's really all it is.

SLi (New user):

"and noted that 1 out of every 3 computing dollars in retail is spent on a Mac."

thats because macs are so darn expensive and theres actually people stupid that get brainwashed by "it just works"
macs are nothing but rubbish, keep your own junk, ive never owned a mac... and never will

Dan Warne (Regular user):

Quoting SLi:
macs are nothing but rubbish, keep your own junk, ive never owned a mac... and never will


LOL :-) That pretty much says it all ... about people who make uninformed judgements about Macs! :-p

techdribble (User):

Quoting Dan Warne:
Quoting SLi:
macs are nothing but rubbish, keep your own junk, ive never owned a mac... and never will


LOL :-) That pretty much says it all ... about people who make uninformed judgements about Macs! :-p

Substitute Vista for Mac and the same applies :)

SLi (New user):

I am informed, and make informed judgements about Macs, I had to fix them while working as a Co-Network Administrator at an organization, and at everything those gay imacs were pathetic, in networking, in doing updates even. A simple security update which was supposed to "Upgrade the securty of Mac OSX" caused every Mac there to lockup during boot, not every single time, but say every 5/6 times they refused to boot.

Macs overheat, Apple underclocks their graphics cards and still claim that their hardware is what it is. Simple security and bug fixes disable the wireless card for no good reason.
Macs suck!
If you require further proof:

http://www.mac-sucks.com/
http://themacsucks.com/joomla/content/category/1/18/31/

Read that all you Mac fanboys!

Dennis RR (New user):

Quoting SLi:
thats because macs are so darn expensive and theres actually people stupid that get brainwashed by "it just works"
macs are nothing but rubbish, keep your own junk, ive never owned a mac... and never will

Lots of people feel that way but we use them for a living and a PC is no good for us when we need a computer that doesn't have the problems when our work is paramount. I am a TV commercial editor and have 4 macs. Over the last 6 years I have never been let down once. You get what you pay for. If you don't want to pay the money, go with the PC. I bill my time at $150 per hour so you can understand that it doesn't take long to be able to make the mac pay. I am just not into building my own computers. "It just works"

Hemma (New user):

Quoting Dennis RR:
I bill my time at $150 per hour so you can understand that it doesn't take long to be able to make the mac pay. I am just not into building my own computers. "It just works"

I wouldn't go so far as to generalize that all PCs are like that. HP workstations are great for a lot of Cad-Based industries. They test all their hardware together, so the build quality is still pretty up there. Whereas the Build your own pcs that my previous workplace had just kept on dying. So, it depends on where you shop, plus, what your capabilities are. If you are an enthusiast that likes to build stuff, then DIY is the way to go. Otherwise, just stick to branded stuff.

Oh, and congrats on the $150/hr.

SLi (New user):

Quoting Dennis RR:
"It just works"


If macs just work, why is there such a thing as a MacFixIt site?

The Penguin (New user):

Quoting SLi:
If macs just work,


I think SLi means the design of the new MacBook Pros just works

Dennis RR (New user):

Quoting SLi:
If macs just work, why is there such a thing as a MacFixIt site?

Whatever...... Sorry you are having a bad day.

SLi (New user):

Quoting Dennis RR:
Whatever...... Sorry you are having a bad day.


Oh, I just have to say, GREAT comeback there... totally just rebuts my argument

Chris (New user):

you didn't report on the best part - Apples didn't disappoint and gave us a new stupid advertising line - "All engineered to standards that don’t even exist yet." One of their funniest yet!

Me In Oz (User):

OMG !
I think I'm starting to see 'value-for-money' from the mighty Apple ......................... Finally !

tfacter (New user):

I dont know if i want to wade into the mac vs pc fight above me in the comments, so i wont, although it felt like the 80's again at the start of the presentation. Overall though i aint that impressed i was wanting more from the pro specs.. mind you i dont mind being able to switch from gpu to gpu, its a bit of a gimmick but i might prove useful in some form, possibly a "cuda" for mac feature down the track

Nathan_Never (New user):

While the new features are all exciting and welcome I am very disappointed about the price raise.

It's true the Australian dollar became weaker compare to the US dollar. But the actual change rate 1AU$=0.69US$ still doesn't justify it. Even if we include taxes and etc.

The white MacBook which sells for US$999 in USA it's AU$1649 in Australia. If you use the rate change it should be US$999/0.69=AU$1447

While all American companies are good and fast to pass a devaluation of Aussie dollar to Australian customers they are not the same good and fast when there is a devaluation of the US$. As when one US$ was very close to one AU$ but the MacBook was still AU$1499 while in USA it was US$1099.

Seems that Steve will have to wait for my AU$ until the international markets will bring the US$ and AU$ closer.
And let's see if Apple will be fair this time.

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

Don't forget to add US sales tax - around 8 percent to your conversion - that adds about $80 to the total so USD1080 @ .69 is $1565 - and they probably calculated pricing when the dollar was at 64c last week.

Nathan_Never (New user):

While the new features are all exciting and welcome I am very disappointed about the price raise.

It's true the Australian dollar became weaker compare to the US dollar. But the actual change rate 1AU$=0.69US$ still doesn't justify it. Even if we include taxes and etc.

The white MacBook which sells for US$999 in USA it's AU$1649 in Australia. If you use the rate change it should be US$999/0.69=AU$1447

While all American companies are good and fast to pass a devaluation of Aussie dollar to Australian customers they are not the same good and fast when there is a devaluation of the US$. As when one US$ was very close to one AU$ but the MacBook was still AU$1499 while in USA it was US$1099.

Seems that Steve will have to wait for my AU$ until the international markets will bring the US$ and AU$ closer.
And let's see if Apple will be fair this time.

Bry (New user):

It's sorta the USA vs The Rest of The World isn't it. We saw this recently too with the Adobe CS4 release, prices in USA are far better than elsewhere, Apple merely continues this trend.

jake (New user):

ok so now if we drop the macbook the trackpad brakes kinda like my glass trackpad in my laptop

Raindog (New user):

Quoting jake:
ok so now if we drop the macbook the trackpad brakes

And what were you expecting to happen?

tfacter (New user):

im not really surprised at apples pricing points, i expect over inflated prices. apple see itself as more of selling an experience rather than a laptop or completing with dell or hp or the asus eeelaptop..

itd (New user):

"Cook also said that Apple had 17.6 percent of retail market share in the US and noted that 1 out of every 3 computing dollars in retail is spent on a Mac."

1 in 3 doesn't equal 17.6%

What exactly is he referring to here?

Is he really bad at maths or is he confirming the commonly held perception that Macs are expensive by stating that they account for approximately 1/6 of the market in terms of sales but around 1/3 of the market in terms of dollars.

Tin (User):

Quoting itd:
or is he confirming the commonly held perception that Macs are expensive


That's how I read it ;-)

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

17.6% percent of unit market share at retail but 33 percent (1/3) of dollar market share

Tin (User):

I think we got that part Danny... As has been pointed out, they are confirming that Macs are well above market price.