Comments on: MacBook Pro has looks and brains

New noteboook looks nearly identical to Apple's existing 15-inch PowerBook, but something radical is going on inside.
The New York Times
Photos: MacBook Pro on parade

[Jonathan]

*Checks the URL of the site*

Sorry just checking to see if I was at news.com or computers.com

This seems more appropriate for the latter. Some nitpicks from a person who has had their 2Ghz/2GB RAM MBP for bordering on two weeks (It will be 2 on Tuesday.) This is my first Mac so there still is some learning to do when it comes to the interface. The keystrokes I learned so well in Windows is maddeningly gone from OS X which is driving me nuts. But I'm not writing this in regards to Apple?s OS. This is about Apple?s hardware. I?m not going to pick apart every sentence in the article but I do have some things to note.

First off we have Rosetta. It has been well documented that Rosetta apps function best with a ton of RAM. I?m running Word 11.2 with 2GB of RAM and its running flawless. No scrolling issues startup takes about 5-7 seconds but once its open its the snappy. The only occasional lag I?ve seen is in cutting and pasting and the occasional typing. But its few and far between by and large I?ve found Rosetta to do a fantastic job. The key is memory though. If you have a ton of apps open and are lacking RAM Rosetta apps are going to be hurting. Until more apps are migrated over to universal binaries users ARE going to have to manage their memory. Even more so with those who are using their laptop with 512MB of RAM. Under PPC 512 may very well have been enough to get you by. The rules have changed with the Intel transition. Again until more apps are UB 1GB is the order of the day.
As for the hardware that was replaced. In my case I migrated from a IBM X31 ThinkPad and a Latitude CSx with an external 4x CD burner. FireWire? 400 is good enough. Burner? 4X is still pretty dang fast. Modem? Haven?t used it in years. Faxing? Internet faxing baby. Etc. I can see some people getting a tad pissed on a few point but really there are only two issues that can?t be overcome: the burner and the lack of PCMCIA slot. Both Firewire/Modem/and S-video can be take care of with an additional purchase. Yes its more money you have to spend but really. You are going to get pissy with another $75 after spending at minimum of 2 grand? Sounds like people are actively looking for something to complain about at this point.

As for the newly built in iSight. People are fawning over it. I personally would rather have the 60-is pixels taken way so the camera could be built in. Apple sacrificed resolution for a feature. A feature not one person I know of uses. Check that on my AIM list of about 40 contacts I have ONE who has a video camera and it?s not compatible with iChat. (they are a MSN user.) Then you have the fact that because of this built in feature you can forget about government sales or companies that have banned cameras. This was bad planning on Apple?s part IMHO. But its part and parcel of the entire MBP experience. The DVD burner is another beautiful example of Apple choosing one thing over another that some would disagree over. It?s blatantly obvious that if Apple wanted to they could have forgone the .1 drop in size in favor of a DL burner or an 8x burner. I don?t know if it was because of space issues within the system because of the Intel transition or because Jobs has a borderline fetish for things 1? but if it?s the latter it was not only a bad call but I think it will deprive them of some sales. I say some because at the end of the day Apple is still going to sell a butt load of these things. Because in the end this laptop is still best in class IMHO. This coming from someone who does warrantee work on Dell laptops and has deployed more Latitudes and Thinkpads then I can count.
I guess I really only have two complains about this laptop. Actually three. (damn single mouse button.) The first was the Express Card choice. Unlike the article I?m not going to chastise Apple for making the choice to go EC. It?s time we moved on. The current PCMCIA card needs to be put to bed. What I?m annoyed with Apple about is their choice to go with the Express Card 34 instead of the 54. No doubt this was based on form factor limitations but they should and prob could have figured out something. Simply put Apple has cut themselves off of some extremely promising cards that make show up in the future. Right now the biggest in my mind is the media card reader. Yes you can read SD, memory stick cards with a slot that is flush against the laptop. Forget about the CF format though. The format that is the defacto standard in the pro digital camera industry. This was a stupid move/choice on Apple?s part IMHO. They should have moved heaven and earth to get the EC 54 format into the system instead.
The second complaint is heat. This is my first Mac but I know from reading up on PowerBooks (I?ve been eyeing an Apple laptop for three years now.) that Apple always skirts the edge of the thermal envelope of what their systems can take all in the name of keeping their systems quiet. Sometimes they cross that boundary and it becomes obvious when they do. (System recalls and firmware updates to increase fan speeds are usually the order of the day.) I the case of this laptop I?m routinely using my laptop cooling pad that has two nice big fans embedded into it to keep the system cool when I?m doing CPU intensive ?stuff?. Like ripping a handful of my movies from my DVD collection to the system. Without this cooling pad I?m dead serious when I say I could prob fry an egg on the thing. Its too hot to touch for more then a second after 45 minutes of ripping a movie. Even with DVD playback the thing gets pretty dang hot. Now no doubt things are being exacerbated with the case being made of metal. In all likelihood it?s prob doing a good job of distributing the heat vs. a typical PC laptop who?s plastic shell does not. But still it would be nice if one day Apple added something under energy saver under options that allowed you to specify when the fan turns on. I?d be willing to put up with a little noise with the comfort of knowing that my MBP is throwing out the heat as much as possible. Apple can put up a flag or something that says ?OMH! FAN NOISE WHEN YOU MOVE THIS SLIDER THE NO!!!? And that is what someone has been my experience with Apple over the last two weeks. There is a distinct my way or the highway mentality to their OS, their apps, and their hardware. Whether this will be OK with me in the long run I have no idea.
Flame away guys.

[J.G.]

A balanced review

A thorough, insightful review. I think Pogue was pretty insightful
in the NYT, too.

Two simple keys for you

Hold the Control key while you click, you get a right-click. Or you can usually just do a half click (hold it down for half a sec without moving) and you get a right-click.

And the keys you miss from windoze, pretty much the pretzel (ok, it's command) key replaces control, as in pretzel +c, +x, +v, +p for copy, cut, paste, and print.

[kamwmail-cnet1]

Hey, It does Windows.

Give it up already. Apple and it's propriety structures are a dead end. They've already admit it with their hardware. Now they just need to admit it with their software. Just load Windows and it'll run faster. Or just load Linux and it wouldn't cost as much as a Mac OS loaded to emulate Windows so that programs will run on Mac OS.

[J.G.]

Here's to broken Windows

Persons who want to use Windows should buy Windows-compatible
computers. The point of buying a Mac is to have the Mac
experience. I look forward to the time when x86 fanboys will
return to overclocking their Dells and leave Macs and OS X alone.

[bcsaxman]

MBP Not Ready For Primetime

Incredible heat issues. Poor battery life. Questionable feature drops & additions. Same high price/limited availability issues as before. Maybe it's just me, but it seems that all the advantages we were promised with this whole Intel move are coming up largely empty.

Don't get me wrong. I recognize that the performance of the MBP is real good in some areas, as should be expected from a computer with two CPU cores at it's disposal, and it's certainly a fine piece to look at. But the PowerBook was just as impressive in the style department, and independent tests at other sites have pretty well established that MBP is not a major improvement performance-wise over the last PB version, dual cores or not, especially when Rosetta is thrown into the mix. And if you consider that a lot of other architectual changes introduced with the MBP are responsible for whatever performance boost we do see (like the faster SATA hard drive, PCIx, a better GPU in general, & a faster FSB); plus that dual core CPUs have been available from Freescale for a while now, and that they use even less energy than CoreDuo (at similar clockspeeds) ... it's just logical to conclude that going to Intel's CPU shouldn't really have been necessary at all.

I won't even get into how AMD is still handing Intel their collective ass in the desktop & server spaces, or how AMD's mobile offerings are now just as efficient as Intel's either. Although I probably should, since Apple's tied their fortunes completely with Intel.

And, of course, there's always the Realist Brigade to contend with. Here's where they will no doubt spit out their 'Get over it/Time to move on' line, either to themselves or in post (they always do in these forums). Yes people - I get it. Really. I honestly don't expect to see another PPC based Mac come out of Cuppertino for quite a while, if ever again. Ok? Pardon me for questioning Dear Leader, or having looked at this in a more critical light.

Nonetheless, the problem I have with all this is not in 'letting go' of the Old Regime, but in trying to figure out what the heck it says about what's going on inside Apple right now. What induced Jobs to make this change when it seems the PPC/G4 offerings currently available would have served his company better in some important ways (especially in 'performance per watt' ironically enough)? And more importantly, while the fanboys & girls (and stock owners) will be cheerleading this product - and all others - regardless of their deficiencies (integrated graphics on the MacMini, anyone?), it seems clear to me, as well as a lot of other objective observers, that this laptop is not as good as it could have been; neither as a Macintel OR as a PPC-based product. The fact that it's 'half baked' in some obvious ways is what worries me, for it indicates that rational decision making/planning & effective execution are not the order of the day within the upper-echelons of the Infinite Loop. You could say Jobs has always been mercurial, but when the stakes were only at the level of the Cube ... hey, no biggie. But the Macintel transition affects every non-iPod product across the entire company, and well into the future. And if Apple's finding it hard to bring their A-Game in that circumstance, well, folks, it just aint good fer bidness. Not in the long term anyway.

Maybe it's just a temporary thing. I certainly hope so. I use Macs and like them a lot. But in the meantime I will also say that, for myself, these last two 'major' product announcements from Apple have been the first in a looong time that have failed to impress me in any way. The MacBook Pro - stupid name and all - is just emblematic of that.

Here's hoping they pick up the pace in the future. I'd love to see AMD become a part of that future too. If not, Apple SHOULD just wise up and go back to PPC for their own hardware, and then sell OSX86 as a standalone product. Probably the best of all worlds.

[Jonathan]

*Checks the URL of the site*

Sorry just checking to see if I was at news.com or computers.com

This seems more appropriate for the latter.

Some nitpicks from a person who has had their 2Ghz/2GB RAM MBP for bordering on two weeks (It will be 2 on Tuesday.) This is my first Mac so there still is some learning to do when it comes to the interface. The keystrokes I learned so well in Windows is maddeningly gone from OS X, which is driving me nuts. But I'm not writing this in regards to Apple?s OS. This is about Apple?s hardware. I?m not going to pick apart every sentence in the article but I do have some things to note.

First off we have Rosetta. It has been well documented that Rosetta apps function best with a ton of RAM. I?m running Word 11.2 with 2GB of RAM and its running flawless. No scrolling issues, startup takes about 5-ish seconds but once its open it?s teh snappy. The only occasional lag I?ve seen is in cutting and pasting and the occasional typing. But its few and far between by and large I?ve found Rosetta to do a fantastic job. The key is memory though. If you have a ton of apps open and are lacking RAM Rosetta apps are going to be hurting. Until more apps are migrated over to universal binaries users ARE going to have to manage their memory. Even more so with those who are using their laptop with 512MB of RAM. Under PPC 512 may very well have been enough to get you by. The rules have changed with the Intel transition. Again until more apps are UB 1GB is the order of the day.
As for the hardware that was replaced. In my case I migrated from a IBM X31 ThinkPad and a Latitude CSx with an external 4x CD burner. FireWire? 400 is good enough. Burner? 4X DVD burning is still pretty dang fast. Modem? Haven?t used it in years. Faxing? Internet faxing baby. Etc. I can see some people getting a tad pissed on a few point but really there are only two issues that can?t be overcome: the burner and the lack of PCMCIA slot. Both Firewire/Modem/and S-video can be take care of with an additional purchase. Yes its more money you have to spend but really. You are going to get pissy with another $75 after spending at minimum of 2 grand? Sounds like people are actively looking for something to complain about at this point.

As for the newly built in iSight. People are fawning over it. I personally would rather have the 60-is pixels taken way so the camera could be built in. Apple sacrificed resolution for a feature. A feature not one person I know of uses. Check that on my Adium list of about 40 contacts I have ONE who has a video camera and it?s not compatible with iChat. (they are a MSN user.) The only thing this video camera is useful for is taking my user picture when I setup the laptop. IMHO not worth the resolution decrease.
Then you have the fact that because of this built in feature you can forget about government sales or companies that have banned cameras. This was bad planning on Apple?s part IMHO. But its part and parcel of the entire MBP experience. The DVD burner is another beautiful example of Apple choosing one thing over another that some would disagree over. It?s blatantly obvious that if Apple wanted to they could have forgone the .1? drop in size in favor of a DL burner or an 8x burner. I don?t know if it was because of space issues within the system because of the Intel transition or because Jobs has a borderline fetish for things 1? but if it?s the latter it was not only a bad call but I think it will deprive them of some sales. I say some because at the end of the day Apple is still going to sell a butt load of these things. Because in the end this laptop is still best in class IMHO. This coming from someone who does warrantee work on Dell laptops and has deployed more Latitudes and Thinkpads then I can count.
I guess I really only have two complains about this laptop. Actually three. (Damn single mouse button.) The first was the Express Card choice. Unlike the article I?m not going to chastise Apple for making the choice to go EC. It?s time we moved on. The current PCMCIA card needs to be put to bed. What I?m annoyed with Apple about is their choice to go with the Express Card 34 instead of the 54. No doubt this was based on form factor limitations but they should and prob could have figured out something. Simply put Apple has cut themselves off of some extremely promising cards that may show up in the future. No doubt we are going to see video cards show up simply because of the bandwidth that is accessible to the EC being directly accessible to the PCI Express bus. But it?s a given such cards will be the EC 54 variant. But that is then. What about now? Right now the biggest in my mind is the media card reader. Yes you can read SD, memory stick cards with a slot that is flush against the laptop without needing some wart of a nub hanging out of the laptop. Forget about the CF format though. The format that is the defacto standard in the pro digital camera industry. This was a stupid move/choice on Apple?s part IMHO. They should have moved heaven and earth to get the EC 54 format into the system instead.
The second complaint is heat. This is my first Mac but I know from reading up on PowerBooks (I?ve been eyeing an Apple laptop for three years now.) that Apple always skirts the edge of the thermal envelope of what their systems can take all in the name of keeping their systems quiet. Sometimes they cross that boundary and it becomes obvious when they do. (System recalls and firmware updates to increase fan speeds or the temp threshold when the fan kicks in are usually the order of the day.) In the case of this laptop I?m routinely using my laptop cooling pad that has two nice big fans embedded into it to keep the system cool when I?m doing CPU intensive ?stuff?. Like ripping a handful of my movies from my DVD collection to the system. Without this cooling pad I?m dead serious when I say I could prob fry an egg on the thing. Its too hot to touch for more then a second after 45 minutes of ripping a movie. Even with DVD playback the thing gets pretty dang hot. Now no doubt things are being exacerbated with the case being made of metal. In all likelihood it?s prob doing a good job of distributing the heat vs. a typical PC laptop who?s plastic shell does not. But still it would be nice if one day Apple added something under energy saver under options that allowed you to specify when the fan turns on. I?d be willing to put up with a little noise with the comfort of knowing that my MBP is throwing out the heat as much as possible. Apple can put up a flag or something that says ?OMH! FAN NOISE WHEN YOU MOVE THIS SLIDER TEH NO!!!? And that is what has been my experience with Apple over the last two weeks. There is a distinct my way or the highway mentality to their OS, their apps, and their hardware. Much more so then Microsoft and their OEM?s. Whether this will be OK with me in the long run I have no idea. Apple?s laptop offering is good. It could be better though and disagree with other people?s statements that the MBP wasn?t ready to ship. It is. But only by a matter of days and its still rough around the edges. Some of that roughness will be removed with 3rd party hardware and further OS updates by Apple.
Flame away guys.

[Verlth]

Virtual PC Included???

Is he right when he says that every MBP has Microsoft Virtual PC included? I just checked the Apple site and it does mention the other included software he mentioned, like a trial of Word 2004, but nowhere does it mention that Virtual PC is included. I would love clarification on this because if they are shipping every MBP with Virtual PC, free-of-charge, I'm ordering one, right away!

[bcsaxman]

No ...

... that's incorrect. You can buy VPC from Apple's online store, but it is not included in the purchase price of the MacBook.

[J.G.]

No VPC for Mactels

Virtual PC is not compatible with Intel Macs. There may be a
version that is down the road.

[Earl Benser]

May not need VPC.....

.... Vista may run naturally on the MacTel machines. Watch the
news whenever Vista shows up.

[birdguynews]

power cord is old news

i can't believe Apple wants to patent the "innovative" power cord on their MacBook Pro. Maybe it has not been done on a laptop, but in Japan or many areas of Asia where Electric Teapots/Airpots are popular, many of them have the SAME "innovative" power plug and have had them since the 90's. I have such an airpot myself that I bought in 1998--instant hot water, mmm...

[rslavelle]

Beware of MacBook Pro: EXCESSIVE NOISE FROM SYSTEM!

Many complaints on Apple discussion board regarding excessive
noise produced by MacBook Pro!

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1149

Hoping Apple will address this problem with a software update.

Buyer beware!