Forums | MacLife

Unless it was there to begin with. I just got the message with the checkbox on my PowerBook not my MBP so I go to my MBP setting and see that this was disabled> I do not remember getting asked the option after prior instals on my PB. Weird

MB38 wrote:

By removing the EX slot from the MacBook Pros, Apple has alienated a tremendous amount of professionals.  There is a LOT of hurting in pro film and digital cinema right now.

But the iPhone can help you find a Zipcar!

Whatever the smurf that is.

Gatchaman wrote:

MB38 wrote:

By removing the EX slot from the MacBook Pros, Apple has alienated a tremendous amount of professionals.  There is a LOT of hurting in pro film and digital cinema right now.

But the iPhone can help you find a Zipcar!

Whatever the smurf that is.

It's no longer hip to own your own car.

Nefarious wrote:

Snow Leopard upgrade price is very nice.

I just made fun of all my windows using friends about this. Go ahead and say what I said. It went like this.
I asked how much they were going to pay to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7
they replied with the price for the version they use
Than I said thats nothing my upgrade is going to be expensive at $29
they replied thats cheap
I than followed with...but thats only for the starter version...'left a brief pause'
wait there is only one version
than I proceeded to mock them with uncontrollable laughs

Last edited by Aaron_R (2009-06-08 9:24 pm)

I never used my slot on my MBP. But it was nice to know I could if needed. But yeah, wtf Apple, no "pro" laptop. Got go huge w/a 17"er. smurfing stupid again. I mean, why does Apple ALWAYS gives ya a little and then feels the need to take something away. Another nice one.

Former Windork wrote:

I mean, for the 13" one, it's a nice little toss in and with Firewire 800, that's now the machine I crave.  But I don't get this move for the 15" one.

I agree and actually drool for the 13" now. I got a 22" screen I can always plug into if I needed anyway. I bet a lot of people do.

The 13" is a nice machine and I would save $700 over the cost when compared to my MacBook Pro purchased over two years ago. I like the new graphics chip on that machine (finally not integrated, right?) which was why I paid all that extra money for my MBP to begin with (plus the better keyboard, etc), but all is even now except screen size besides the high end 15" and then all of the 17" models.

I just looked over the video.  I thought I'd share my opinion..

What's hot.
• Stack scrolling and navigation -- the last time I suggested this idea, people thought I was nuts.  Just wanted to say I told you so...
• Expose dock integration
• Performance improvements in Snow Leopard
• Safari 4 performance.
• Small footprint.
• $29 Upgrade option.
• Everything is now 64-Bit.
• Grand Central
• OpenCL
• Cut copy and paste on iPhone.
• Apple cares about games (on the iPhone)

What's not:
• Removal of express card slot from a supposedly professional notebooks.  This is a bit of a gamble on Apple's part.  You lose some users, while others will buy more expensive machines -- the goal being maximum profit.  They tried this with FireWire and it backfired; it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
• Tabs in Safari's title bar.  An ingenious idea that survived the entire beta program, but now seems to have disappeared without a trace (and no option to enable).
• Grand Central -- Isn't this just a thread pool?  It's a great idea, don't get me wrong... It's just that Apple seems to be overhyping this quite a bit.  I don't think Microsoft even mentioned their thread pool class when they introduced .Net.  In short: GCD is good, but shouldn't be considered a major feature.
• Objective C still required for iPhone apps.  It's not a bad language, but the syntax can be pretty bizarre looking.
• Apple doesn't care about games (on the Mac)

All in all, I think this is probably the most exciting "Apple"-notes (using generic term) since the WWDC 05.  I'm really, really looking forward to Snow Leopard.  Whereas Microsoft seems to be fixated with bloat, Apple seems to be doing the exact opposite.  I've felt that the existing Leopard is lean and snappy next to Windows; Snow Leopard just looks awesome.

Last edited by Mr. T (2009-06-09 2:14 am)

Nefarious wrote:

Good old Medal of Honor needs Rosetta, so this Mac is staying at 10.5

There's always Boot Camp for that; it runs better natively anyway. And I still think it more than possible that a F@H GPU Mac client may use OpenCL, thus requiring Snow Kitty.

Mr. T wrote:

I just looked over the video.  I thought I'd share my opinion..

What's hot.

• $29 Upgrade option.
..
• OpenCL

..Whereas Microsoft seems to be fixated with bloat, Apple seems to be doing the exact opposite.

Not keeping up?

The install process is also reportedly 45 percent faster and the OS consumes 6 GB less space, similar to the shrinking footprint of Windows 7 versus Vista.

The price is certainly nice, but is almost surely a one-time thing to try and reverse the recent turnaround in marketshare for OSX, as is the timing:

Apple is gunning aggressively for Windows 7, releasing Snow Leopard in September, a full month before Microsoft's release.  The release is priced at $29 (versus $129 for the previous OS, Leopard) and $49 for a "family pack" that can install on several home machines.

Also missed is this golden opportunity to synergise that with a generic x86 release...

Microsoft is somewhat safeguarded, though, by the fact that Apple's closed box hardware policies won't allow non-Apple-hardware users to jump to OS X.

At $29, SL might've posed a real threat to 7, which, unlike Vista, has genned a good bit of buzz and a lot of favorable reactions from testers. As it is, this price can't lure many switchers, as it'll come on new Macs ca. September, and can only be Hackintoshed onto generic hardware prior- hardly an Everyman solution. Not user-friendly.

And on your Hot List, you forgot Quicktime X:

QuickTime X is another key program, bringing "hardware acceleration, color correct, new technology for streaming (HTTP streaming)."

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15362

Rosetta is still there but only as an option on the current beta builds but there's no word one way or the other on whether it will remain that way or actually be removed in the final.

Bat wrote:

Mr. T wrote:

..Whereas Microsoft seems to be fixated with bloat, Apple seems to be doing the exact opposite.

Not keeping up?

The install process is also reportedly 45 percent faster and the OS consumes 6 GB less space, similar to the shrinking footprint of Windows 7 versus Vista.

I'm aware.  I even tried the Windows 7 beta.  Though a substantial improvement over Vista, it still didn't feel quite as lean as even regular Leo.  The footprint has certainly shrunk, but things like random HD activity and general responsiveness could use further improvement.  They still have all this technology like superfetch, .net caching (the list goes on and on...) all of which aim to optimize the machine's idle time, but it never seems to work out that way, at least in my experience.  Even if it did work, I doubt it would be worth the cost to battery life for notebook users.  So it's substantially better than before, but not quite there yet, imo.

The price is certainly nice, but is almost surely a one-time thing to try and reverse the recent turnaround in marketshare for OSX, as is the timing:

No doubt.

Also missed is this golden opportunity to synergise that with a generic x86 release...

If Apple were to do that, then they would have to get rid of the imposed artificial distinctions in its product line.  Want an express card slot and OS X, without dropping an extra grand on a larger MBP?  Just buy a Dell!  The alternative would be too convenient.  As it stands, I believe that the vast majority of current Mac users would continue to pay more for Macs even if a generic OS X existed... but these games would have to stop.

And on your Hot List, you forgot Quicktime X:

QuickTime X is another key program, bringing "hardware acceleration, color correct, new technology for streaming (HTTP streaming)."

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15362

Ah yes, I meant to include this.

The loss of the express card slot is a mixed bag;  I can see why Apple did it since a lot of the newer AVCHD camcorders now record to SD cards; they want so you can just plug in.

Sucks for pros, since the IoHD will now not work with one; but seriously; are you really going to do HD on a laptop -- probably not.  AJA also has the new KiPro coming out so I think it will be a moot point in the long run.

-mark

MB38 wrote:

Keep in mind that the IOHD is one of hundreds of products that use the EX slot.  Professional digital cinema and film goes way beyond ProRes.

We have one, and seriously I rarely hook it to my laptop;  but I "do" have a Firewire 800 express card just in case (although the IoLA was the same way).

It does suck though -- the consumer books should have the SD slot; the Pros should keep with Express34 (even though a 54 would be better).

-mark