Aluminum MacBooks, LED Cinema Display

Well, the day arrived! Sure enough, Apple has released new aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pros. As is obvious from the pictures, these are beautiful machines with a stunning design. The MacBook Air has also been ramped up a bit. Here are the highlights:

• The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are now equipped with glass Multi-Touch trackpads, and as a unique design change, the entire trackpad is clickable with no separate buttons.
• The graphics chip is upgraded to a 256 MB GeForce 9400M on the new MacBook and Air and a 256 MB 9400M or a 256 or 512 MB 9600M GT on the Pro.
• The displays are now all LED-backlit glossy displays.
• The processors have been ramped to 1066 MHz frontside buses, with a 3MB shared L2 cache on the MacBook, 3 or 6 on the Pro, and 6 on the Air. Also, the new MacBook Pro is upgradeable to 2.8 GHz.
• The MacBook Pro 17″ (still the old design) comes standard with 4GB of memory.
• Battery life is improved to 5 hours for the MacBook line
• Pricing: $999 for an old-style white MacBook, $1299 for a 2 GHz MacBook, $1599 for a 2.4 GHz. $1999 for a 2.4 GHz Pro, $2499 for a 2.53 GHz.

Another announcement I don’t think anyone was expecting was the 24″ LED Cinema Display for the MacBook. At the moment, it appears that it is ONLY compatible with the MacBook, but hopefully Apple will release additional models and this will change. The display is beautiful, with the same design as the current iMac but with no “chin” and white Apple logo. The back is solid aluminum instead of black plastic, and the stand is has a taper so the front edge of it is almost like a wedge. It includes 3 USB ports.

Go check them out on the Apple site!

MacBook

LED Cinema Display

MacBook Pro

Aluminum Macbook: Tuesday, October 14?

BIG NEWS APPLE FANS!

Just earlier today, I was at the Apple store checking out some stuff, and I was talking to one of the employees there. We got to the topic of MacBooks, and one of the things he mentioned was – you guessed it – Aluminum MacBooks this Tuesday. I don’t know if this is common knowledge (although I haven’t seen much on it) or if it was a slip by the employee, but it certainly fits with the rumors.

So check back here on Tuesday night to see if the “inside information” was correct! If it is in fact Tuesday, this will certainly be a huge announcement. Stay tuned!

“The Mojave Experiment” – Fact or Fiction?

WARNING: HIGHLY OPINIONATED RANT FOLLOWS! PLEASE USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN READING!

I just saw this thing on TV the other day about the “Mojave Experiment.” (website) Basically Microsoft took a bunch of people who knew almost nothing about Vista and showed them a bunch of demos of “Windows Mojave.” Of course, Mojave was really Vista. So what were the results? Most people liked Mojave when they hated Vista.

So what’s the truth? Was this a valid experiment? Are people really that prejudiced against Vista?

Well, here’s my analysis:

1. Microsoft likely mostly picked people who really didn’t know much about Vista. At least those are the ones who mostly get shown on the videos.
2. Most users (again, at least the ones shown) hadn’t actually used Vista, even casually (as can probably be deduced from #1) so they had nothing to really compare “Mojave” to.
3. The ones doing the experiment “showed off” most of the “ooh, ahh” features like Media Center, Flip3d, desktop search, and gadgets. (experienced Mac users note these all appeared in OSX long before “Mojave”…) They really didn’t get into the actual robustness, security (besides mentioning the “60%” improvement over XP – which still leaves hundreds of thousands of viruses in that “40%”, but conveniently failed to mention that last fact) or speed of the OS. They just showed the “best,” most “showy” aspects.
4. They didn’t actually let the users USE the machines before giving their verdict. It’s one thing when a professional is showing you all the things a system can do, but then try doing it yourself. I myself can make Vista work nearly as well as OSX for most things, but it takes far more effort. The average user can’t do what the MS guys did in this “experiment,” but most people can on a Mac. The difference is apparent when you use the systems.

Personally I think this campaign will unfortunately be successful. Most people will think “Ooh, look at how people really liked it when they didn’t know what it is. All the hostility must be all hype.” There is one ray of hope, though. When you visit the website, the HORRIBLE video navigation system is likely to scare most people away!