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New Macbook and Mini are dull for the most part - CPU, RAM and hard drive bumps. There's also a weirdo $1000 Mini with Snow Leopard Server, no optical drive, and dual 500GB hard drives. Kind of amusing anyway.

The iMacs are a bit insane - they start at 21.5" 1920x1080 displays and go up to 27" 2560x1440. And the 27" has the new (mobile?) Core i5 at 2.66GHz and a Radeon 4850 (probably mobile part). For $2000 it ain't too shabby. Part of me really wants one of these. "Shiny toy" is the only reason, though.

The $800 Mini is kind of attractive, though. 2.53GHz, 4GB of memory, 320GB hard drive, and still nVidia Geforce 9400-based. Not really my kind of machine, but not bad all the same.

Edit: the Macbook isn't quite as boring as I thought - it now also has a non-removable 7-hour battery, and the shell's shape looks a bit more like the unibody styling, but it's still polycarbonate. Also, it has DDR3 instead of DDR2 now, so it's not a huge performance hit against the pros. No SD reader yet though.

derFunkenstein wrote:

New Macbook and Mini are dull for the most part - CPU, RAM and hard drive bumps. There's also a weirdo $1000 Mini with Snow Leopard Server, no optical drive, and dual 500GB hard drives. Kind of amusing anyway.

The iMacs are a bit insane - they start at 21.5" 1920x1080 displays and go up to 27" 2560x1440. And the 27" has the new (mobile?) Core i5 at 2.66GHz and a Radeon 4850 (probably mobile part). For $2000 it ain't too shabby. Part of me really wants one of these. "Shiny toy" is the only reason, though.

The $800 Mini is kind of attractive, though. 2.53GHz, 4GB of memory, 320GB hard drive, and still nVidia Geforce 9400-based. Not really my kind of machine, but not bad all the same.

I would be rather hesitant to buy the New Macbook it looks like the same plastic as the other macbook. I'd probably wait 6 months before I'd buy it to see if it develops cracks.

The Imacs don't seem bad and at least the the 21.5 has an ips panel. The mini is bleh to me and engadget should change it's name to macgadget, holy cow. Enough Apple posts in one time. The mini server reminds me of WHS... Yes it has more feature, but it's also more expensive.

The Magic Mouse is about to burn a 70$ hole in my MasterCard..

Adi

The price of Leopard server ($499 10-seat license, I believe) is going to keep the Mini out of the WHS market. Besides, Apple "addresses" that with the time capsule. This is more of a small-business server.

edit: Also, that Magic Mouse is not anything like what I wanted - I wanted a trackpad built into the keyboard that works like the notebook track pads. :-s

The MacBook is so hit and miss. I think the tweaked body looks great. But the port selection is very poor and the non-removal battery still frustrates me. I can't help but looking at it and thinking it would be awesome to swap in a CULV processor, thin it out, add a SD reader, add a dedicated line in, give us normal DisplayPort, one more USB port. That would be my "dream" laptop. Would hopefully see at the very least a couple more hours of battery life. Yeah... a totally different product but I just don't see any value in the current form. Oh and it would likely lower MacBook Air sales by quite a bit.

Other thoughts... I don't like that the iMac is now a 16:9 ratio. The Mini server is interesting but personally I'm having a hard time seeing any good uses for it. I can imagine some people using it to learn on. Last time I heard, been awhile, from a friend he was making considerably more doing Apple IT work. This was in Toronto. Sounded like a great market to get into for IT.

adisor19 wrote:

The Magic Mouse is about to burn a 70$ hole in my MasterCard..

Adi

Do burn that hole and report back results. I wonder how it compares to the multitouch mouse that Microsoft showed a couple weeks ago. Also obligatory Apple bash comment: "Not only do Apple mice fail to right click, now they can't click at all!"

derFunkenstein wrote:

The price of Leopard server ($499 10-seat license, I believe) is going to keep the Mini out of the WHS market. Besides, Apple "addresses" that with the time capsule. This is more of a small-business server.

edit: Also, that Magic Mouse is not anything like what I wanted - I wanted a trackpad built into the keyboard that works like the notebook track pads. :-s

Eww, a server without easily removable drives. So one of my drives go out and I send it back to Apple? My file server is out of comission for 3 days- a week? I understand what you mean, but that seems like a bad idea to me.

I understand why some people might want the Magic Mouse, but I'm gonna stick with my full sized bluetooth mouse.

Hm. A corei5 iMac? Looks like I might be able to hackintosh Lucky. :3

ssidbroadcast wrote:

Hm. A corei5 iMac? Looks like I might be able to hackintosh Lucky. :3

READY THE PITCHFORKS.

thecoldanddarkone wrote:

I would be rather hesitant to buy the New Macbook it looks like the same plastic as the other macbook. I'd probably wait 6 months before I'd buy it to see if it develops cracks.

FWIW I've had a polycarb Macbook here at work since June '07 and no cracks in it. It's seen a fair old bit of thermal expansion/contraction, since I used to do F@H on it.

bthylafh wrote:

thecoldanddarkone wrote:

I would be rather hesitant to buy the New Macbook it looks like the same plastic as the other macbook. I'd probably wait 6 months before I'd buy it to see if it develops cracks.

FWIW I've had a polycarb Macbook here at work since June '07 and no cracks in it. It's seen a fair old bit of thermal expansion/contraction, since I used to do F@H on it.

You think Apple now covers out of warranty shell replacements because it was a minor issue? I worked at a small college and the percentage is very high for those cracks.

I clicked on Apple to see what you were talking about. Seems they offer the i7 as well. I also liked the Star Trek screenshot they are using.

no51 wrote:

adisor19 wrote:

The Magic Mouse is about to burn a 70$ hole in my MasterCard..

Adi

Do burn that hole and report back results. I wonder how it compares to the multitouch mouse that Microsoft showed a couple weeks ago. Also obligatory Apple bash comment: "Not only do Apple mice fail to right click, now they can't click at all!"

YESSSIR ! Hole has been burned. Will report back once i play with it for a bit. As for your oblig bash statement, the mouse still clicks.

Adi

PRIME1 wrote:

I clicked on Apple to see what you were talking about. Seems they offer the i7 as well. I also liked the Star Trek screenshot they are using.

Oh, hey you're right. 2.8GHz Core i7 for $200 more.

These can't be mobile parts- mobile Core i7s don't come that fast. And it apparently has 4 RAM slots. Could they really be using desktop parts in the iMacs now?

adisor19 wrote:

no51 wrote:

adisor19 wrote:

The Magic Mouse is about to burn a 70$ hole in my MasterCard..

Adi

Do burn that hole and report back results. I wonder how it compares to the multitouch mouse that Microsoft showed a couple weeks ago. Also obligatory Apple bash comment: "Not only do Apple mice fail to right click, now they can't click at all!"

YESSSIR ! Hole has been burned. Will report back once i play with it for a bit. As for your oblig bash statement, the mouse still clicks.

Adi

I can't wait to see how the new mouse performs. A good mouse is the difference between a 1 and 2 hour audio mix for me...

The new macbook has the same spec as the cheapest pro but with a larger harddrive and £100 cheaper is the aluminium body really worth that much more money?

Skrying wrote:

Other thoughts... I don't like that the iMac is now a 16:9 ratio. The Mini server is interesting but personally I'm having a hard time seeing any good uses for it. I can imagine some people using it to learn on. Last time I heard, been awhile, from a friend he was making considerably more doing Apple IT work. This was in Toronto. Sounded like a great market to get into for IT.

The 2560x1440 resolution is very unusual. I mean, its so close to 2560x1600 I'm wondering why they didn't just go with 16:10?

Y'know, with a Core i5/i7 and a HD4850, the 27-inch version could make a fairly decent gaming machine (yes, I know Apple doesn't care about that) with the right in-game settings. I'd like to see someone dual-boot Windows 7 and see how it holds up.

derFunkenstein wrote:

PRIME1 wrote:

I clicked on Apple to see what you were talking about. Seems they offer the i7 as well. I also liked the Star Trek screenshot they are using.

Oh, hey you're right. 2.8GHz Core i7 for $200 more.

These can't be mobile parts- mobile Core i7s don't come that fast. And it apparently has 4 RAM slots. Could they really be using desktop parts in the iMacs now?

According to the specs it uses 4 SO-DIMM slots, so its using laptop memory. It could be using a mini-ITX board that uses SO-DIMMs for memory and a desktop chip? I've seen several mITX boards like that before. Otherwise, it could be Apple just ordered a custom mobile chip for its exclusive use? Its not like Intel hasn't done that for Apple before.

I don't think that it's desktop i7, if it were, they'd be seriously undercutting the Mac Pros.

I would say pixel density and the dollar factor. At 2560*1440 it's already at 108.7 ppi at 2560x1600 it's almost 112 ppi. I would go blind using the 27 inch Imac. I had a hard enough time using a 30 inch on Leapord.

Kurotetsu wrote:

The 2560x1440 resolution is very unusual. I mean, its so close to 2560x1600 I'm wondering why they didn't just go with 16:10?

Because a 16:9 panel is cheaper to manufacturer than a 16:10. The entire market, sadly, is shifting to 16:9. Nearly every new laptop is coming with that and virtually every LCD manufacturer has shifted over to it with their lineup except for the high end monitors.

Ushio01 wrote:

The new macbook has the same spec as the cheapest pro but with a larger harddrive and £100 cheaper is the aluminium body really worth that much more money?

You forgot the missing Firewire port..

Adi

thecoldanddarkone wrote:

I would say pixel density and the dollar factor. At 2560*1440 it's already at 108.7 ppi at 2560x1600 it's almost 112 ppi. I would go blind using the 27 inch Imac. I had a hard enough time using a 30 inch on Leapord.

And that's why Resolution Independence can't come soon enough. Until Resolution Independence is out hopefully in 10.7, Apple will have no choice but to ship LCDs with very low ppi

Adi

Anyone besides me wondering how the Core I7 Imac is gonna sound on full load? Especially if the Core I7 is a desktop part.

Skrying wrote:

Kurotetsu wrote:

The 2560x1440 resolution is very unusual. I mean, its so close to 2560x1600 I'm wondering why they didn't just go with 16:10?

Because a 16:9 panel is cheaper to manufacturer than a 16:10. The entire market, sadly, is shifting to 16:9. Nearly every new laptop is coming with that and virtually every LCD manufacturer has shifted over to it with their lineup except for the high end monitors.

Yep, even Dell has 23" 2560x1440 monitors... On the plus side they work great as 1440x2560.

thecoldanddarkone wrote:

bthylafh wrote:

thecoldanddarkone wrote:

I would be rather hesitant to buy the New Macbook it looks like the same plastic as the other macbook. I'd probably wait 6 months before I'd buy it to see if it develops cracks.

FWIW I've had a polycarb Macbook here at work since June '07 and no cracks in it. It's seen a fair old bit of thermal expansion/contraction, since I used to do F@H on it.

You think Apple now covers out of warranty shell replacements because it was a minor issue? I worked at a small college and the percentage is very high for those cracks.

I said /I/ didn't have that problem, pinhead. For working at a college your reading skills need work.

thecoldanddarkone wrote:

Anyone besides me wondering how the Core I7 Imac is gonna sound on full load? Especially if the Core I7 is a desktop part.

They're probably not going to be as bad as you might think - after all, it's an absolute behemoth of a shell it's in. It's designed for 95W (if its a real 860 and not some sort of souped-up mobile part), sure. And I'm not sure how they measure the chassis, but it's in an 8"-deep shell, according to the tech specs. Plenty of room for a desktop cooler.

I said /I/ didn't have that problem, pinhead. For working at a college your reading skills need work.

Lol. I thought you were using your experience with that one macbook as some sort of measure. Sorry if I took it the wrong way.

As for the Imac, I still want to hear it under full load.

am I the only one happy about the new mini? Yeah they're boring upgrades, but important. Going from 512 default to 2Gb default on ram? That's nice.
I keep meaning to buy one to replace my defunct desktop and keep running short on disposable funds...bleh. Maybe at Christmas...now that I game on a 360, I don't need it to really play games on. And that's the big reason to keep with PCs, at least for me.

I tried to go with just my ps3, and it didn't work out with me. Every person is different, but with me I found the library somewhat lacking of games that I want. The ones I did want are cross platform and since PC games are almost always cheaper... I would just end up buying them as PC games. Now the mini is powerful enough to play most of the older budget games and with the combination of the two I could see it working with some people.


(i'm pretty sure 1 gig was standard since leopard was released)


With me though, hardware rules. I think the mini is a nice good form factor, but for 600/800 dollars I'd rather have the a desktop, not full sized, but anything with with a pci express port. I don't need anything more than the lower mid range (example 4650, 9800 gt).