Posted by Nathaniel.
The new MacBook Pros with multi-touch trackpads are out.
Apple
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on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 9:43 am and is filed under geek, things that kick ass.
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February 26th, 2008 at 3:22 pm Using
I’m so happy the wait is finally over!! Although I’m a little disappointed that there’s no case redesign at all especially no new magnetic latch, at least it has better processor, new video card and multi-touch trackpad, so it’s good enough for me. I just purchased the ADC student membership and will take advantage of the “once-per-lifetime” hardware discount:).
I probably will get the 2.5Ghz 15″ model. still not sure whether to get glossy screen or not, and 7200rpm or 5400rpm. But anyone, I’m just glad the stupid wait is over and Tuesday is not that special to me any more;)
February 26th, 2008 at 3:33 pm Using
Wow, I only have a free ADC membership and I’ve never looked at the ADC store. That’s a pretty impressive discount… and I don’t even know if it’s the “once-per-lifetime” one.
The middle model is definitely the one to get. The processor has a lot more cache than the low-end one. The 7200 rpm drive sounds good, but I’m worried about how much battery life it will eat up. As long as you get plenty of memory (4 GB of DDR2 should be under $100 online), you should just be reading and writing continuous streams of data to the drive so rotational latency shouldn’t be a huge issue.
Congrats on the new machine (once you get it), I’m going to have to start saving my money now too.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:04 pm Using
Order placed:)
ADC is a great deal. For cheap student membership the discount is “once-per-lifetime”. For the middle model, the price is $300 less than the education price, minus $99 membership fee, still $200 less, not bad. and also I think a free copy of Leopard comes together with the membership.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:41 am Using
There are some good deals for memory out there right now too.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/DDR2/Upgrade
They’ll sell you 2 2 GB sticks of memory for $95 and then give you $20 back if you send them the memory you pull out of your machine. So that’s 4 GB of ram for $75… not too shabby.
It’s looking like the more efficient processor might give these machines almost an hour more battery life than the ones they replaced too. I wish I wish I wish I had the money to get one.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:26 am Using
Shiney!
That’s a pretty sweet deal on RAM, wow. Unfortunately my powerbook is still treating me pretty well, so there’s no immediate upgrade in my future, but K will need one soon!
Here’s an Apple produce that they should make but don’t yet - an external multi-touch, multi-button touchpad. I find that I like the handy two-finger scrolling, etc of the touchpad, but (a) I’d like something not in the middle of my computer and (b) I’d like an easy right-click button. So seriously, why not make a USB touchpad/mouse? Simple technology, $50-60/product, they could outsource it somewhere for cheap, etc…
February 29th, 2008 at 12:52 am Using
For the whole day the first thing I did when I got to the computer is to check the status of the order, so far it’s still “Not Yet Shipped”, sigh.
I think I will wait a little bit to do the RAM upgrade. Comparing with my broken Powerbook 1.33GHz I’m sure this new baby will be a huge step up. I will wait until I’m a little fed up and going to 4GB RAM would be like another mini upgrade, ha. Also the price of the RAM will only go lower.
As for the multi touch pad, I haven’t had any experience with it. For now its use is probably very limited but I can certainly see great potential. An external multi touch would be cool although it could be a little awkward to use. A tablet is definitely a better place for multi touch to shine.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am Using
Way back when I had an external touchpad. Actually, I think it’s in a box downstairs right now. It was made by ALPS, I think Apple only kicked them out of the iPod and PowerBook a while ago when they developed their own track pads. Anyway, it connected via ADB (which was really a great technology) and had three buttons. Of course, in 1994 I only used the main button.
The price of memory doesn’t always go down. I just upgraded my PowerBook to 2 GB. (Probably should have asked you what you’re doing with your old memory.) Anyway, older PC2700 DDR RAM is going up in price. It’s currently around $65/GB.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am Using
One other thought, you should watch how much swap memory you’re using. If you’re hitting swap a lot with the memory the computer comes with, you should upgrade sooner rather than later. It would suck to wear out the hard drive because you’re using too much virtual memory.
Of course, make sure you back up too.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:10 pm Using
I may be using my $1500 of research money to pay for part of a new MacBook Pro … Just gotta come up with the rest of the $$.
My current laptop works pretty well still considering … it doesn’t latch closed, doesn’t see most wireless networks, is slowing down, doesn’t boot windows, and has a battery life of about 15 minutes….