trishussey
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Rhombus
Yes, the world of Apple is still all a glow from today's WWDC keynote. As expected, we got the iPhone 3.0 update info, and Snow Leopard info ... but yeah we got a few cool things on top of that too...MacBook updates, Safari 4, and Snow Leopard for only $29!
In my post this morning about WWDC, I gave you what conventional wisdom thought about the announcements this morning. We knew about iPhone 3.0 update (I'm going to do an iPhone post later), Snow Leopard, and Quicktime. What we didn't expect were the updates to the MacBook Pro line and how little the upgrade to Snow Leopard is going to cost. Let's hit the MacBook updates...
First off from now on if it's an aluminum unibody MacBook it's a Pro ... doesn't matter what size the screen is, it's a Pro now. This isn't just marketing hype either, these are now all serious machines, but are there any good bargains to be had? Oh yeah, count on it.
Apple updated both the 13" and 15" models with significant speed, hard drive, and ram boosts, but th.... First introduced with the 17" MBP, both the 13 and 15" models now sport the same built-in, non-removable batteries. While Apple got flack for this because it means you can't swap batteries on the fly (I haven't done that in years), you gain better battery life because a larger battery can be put into the chassis if you don't have to allow for it to be removed. Also gone are the ExpressCard slots from the 15" replaced by a SD card reader (finally!). Because Apple couldn't ever really fit an ExpressCard slot into the 13" model, folks felt short changed. Not only that, the 13" unibody machines lost FireWire connection when first introduced ... grieve no longer! The 13" MBP will have both the SD card reader and FireWire 800.
Yippe you say. Apple has done it again, more features, more power, blah, blah, blah ... how much?
Less.
Less?
Yep, Apple cut the prices on the two 13" models and the three 15" models.
Crap.
No, no wait this is a great thing for bargain hunters. See, retailers have a bunch of the original unibody machines left in inventory. They need to be sold and they can't be sold for the original price (because that would make them more expensive than the newer more powerful models). I haven't received any official word from Future Shop, but just looking at the prices of the new models vs the old I'm guessing we'll see a bit of a price drop. Maybe not fire sale levels, because these are still great machines, but enough to make people consider them.
For my money I'm keeping an eye on the prices of the higher end old 13" unibody MacBook, and the current and previous white MacBooks. The speed bump that the white 13" MacBook got made it more powerful than the bottom end 13" unibody, which makes it a bargain at $1149, if you can find the previous version of the white MacBook take a serious look at them. I'm guessing they might wind up being great values. Honestly, I don't think many people will notice a difference between either of the white MacBooks or the low-end 13" original unibody if all they are doing is email, surfing, writing a bit, and messing a bit with pictures.
Word to the wise, look for bargains now.
What about the new machines? Who are they for? The 15" MBPs are great medium duty machines. The increase in speed and ability to handle up to 8 GB of RAM is a serious plus. Bigger HDs? Oh yeah. The 13" machines will be awesome everyday machines for most people. From the specs they are going to be great all purpose machines. But wait didn't you just say...
Look, yes, I'm all out for a bargain, but I also see good value as well. The new machines are great deals. Even the MacBook Air got a boost and price cut. When you buy the newest update, it means that you can make the budget you had go farther it also means you might be able to get a machine that fits your budget if you go for the previous models.
Now let's talk software for a second. OX 10.6 aka Snow Leopard is due to be released in September (the developer preview is out now) and unlike the Apple of the past, this update is going to be a no-brainer $29USD. You want to talk great value? Yeah this is going to be a great value. Snow Leopard will leverage all the power of your dual-core machine, run at 64 bit for all native applications (read fast), and it will save you 6 GB on the install. Yeah, get that, you install the updated OS, you get 6 GB back from your hard drive.
Safari 4 has been out in beta for months now. It is supposed to be the new era of browsers like Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox 3.5. Well, Apple is the first to get a finished browser that cranks performance to an 11 for both Mac and Windows. Firefox 3.5 still isn't final, and Google's Chrome is only out of beta for Windows (on the Mac its a developer preview). Safari 4 dropped today and, yep, it's fast. Very fast. I've been using it all day and I've noticed the improvements over the last beta update (less than a month ago). While Google Chrome for Mac is impressive even as a developer preview, it's nice to have a full-featured and finished browser to use.
No, Apple didn't announce a tablet or netbook. Steve Jobs didn't make an appearance, but frankly I was pretty impressed with the day.
For all the updates, I'd check out The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).
Next up ... iPhone 3.0 and the new iPhone 3GS
Update Tuesday Jun 9: I've received the updated pricing for how the previous model 13, 15, & 17" models will be sold. Wow. There are some serious deals to be had! Here is my take and advice...
Best budget machine: 13" White MacBook (updated version). The price and value of this machine is superb. Note that this machine is more powerful than the base model 13" unibody MacBook (previous version), making it even a better value.
Best all around machine: 13" aluminum 2.4GHz model (previous model). Without giving away the pricing, all I can say is wow. This is a serious deal.
Best power machines: 15" 2.66GHz & 17" 2.66Ghz aluminum models. Because Apple has both bumped up the power and dropped the price of the machines announced yesterday, the higher end previous generation models are where we're seeing the biggest price cuts. The choice of 15" or 17" is up to you. Personally I don't like 17" machines because they are heavier and harder to find good bags for.
