No more new Macs this year?

[SF Geek]

I'm guessing Apple isn't upgrading the MacBook Pro before the new year. Anyone know any different?

 

[dalen johnson]

nope...take a look at Intels roadmap and the times that apple typically makes big announcements.

Intels SantaRosa Penryn chip for laptops will not be released until around Jan.
The desktop version was just announced this Nov. (thats why people were expecting updates to the Mac Pro desktop line, as it supposedly hasnt been updated in over a year...though I seem to recall it did get a bump somewhere in the last few months.)

Expect apple to potentially announce new macbook pros in Jan.
But in the same token, depending on when Intel actually ships the new Penryn chips, you may be waiting a tad longer than you expected.

If you can wait, you might want to hold off until 2nd quarter or so when the next chip from Intel comes out. Forget the name, but I had their map in front of me analyzing it for myself...and it will have a 1000frontside bus. (getting desktopish if you ask me. Of course the desktops by then will be 1600 frontside bus.)

So there you go.

Im on a Powerbook G4 667mhz...waiting for the right machine.

Considering that there have been screen issues with the new LED 15inches - from bandings to flickering if not cranked all the way up in brightness, as well as some other quarks (this along with the mess they had with the imacs freezing), lets me know not to get a first gen something with apple. (Well, I have used macs for 12+ years. And remember when we purchased G3s for our studio and everyone we got in had an issue...I think that was in the time of the 'yikes' mother board. Dont remember the issue, but apple is well known for their products that are sub par on first generation.

With the next revision you may see 17inch LEDs, which would then perhaps inspire apple to use a better LED monitor on the 15 inches, without fear that it will take away from the 17 inch line. (which they try to keep the sales up by adding the choice, for pay, of the extra resolution.)

If this is the case, the next revision may not be bad either. They just now are also straightening out battery issues they have had. Where they would only last 2 minutes.

Funny thing, this is not new. I use my laptop as a desktop, rarely using the battery. But when I do, it last all of 2 seconds after showing full charge.
It would appear apple has always had batter issues.

I realize now, that the battery is to be drained fully and recharged every month. Seems a waste if you dont need to...improve the technology, and put a big sticker on the box saying your battery will not function if this is the case. Enough on that...point is batteries have always had issues along with the power cord. (wow, they have a few issues actually)

And not only were they having issues with the mag safe power cord, even after they replaced it...but back when I had my G3 Pismo with the clear power cord box. I saw that the inside was literally fried, and took it back and got a free exchange. The guy was as amazed as me.

But soon after that, they came out with the solid power bricks...dont want someone seeing if the wiring is messed up. Notice, it 'worked', and had I not seen it through the clear plastic block, I would not have known.

I suppose apples take is what you dont see wont hurt you as long as it 'works'. I hate to say it, but freyed wires are not to becoming, and actually unsafe. My G4 has the same symptoms that my other powerbooks power block had...but I cant see inside of it.

Hmmm...apple and quality control - yet I still use them.
Guess you stay with the satan you know better. 2 weeks on my mother in laws non mac with Vista (in Hungarian, to top it off) convinced me not to go the windows route.

peace, and enjoy your purchase...or rather, enjoy what you are using now.
At least you know it works.

 

[Yannick Hagman]

Nope, I guess not. I hope they will release an iMac without this damn, glossy, oversaturated disneyland screen. The company really struggles with quality since they focus on iPhones. IMHO.

 

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

I don't think Mac products are sub-par first generation, I just think as with any technology there are sometimes issues. Anyway, G3s were not very good machines, Macs didn't start getting really good until G5s running OS X in my opinion. OS 9 was a lousy operating system, even Mac addicts will tell you that. I got my MacBook Pro this last summer and have been very happy with it; it's a great machine.

 

[Damien Molineaux]

20" vs 24" aluminium iMac

20" vs 24" aluminium iMac

Nope, I guess not. I hope they will release an iMac without this damn, glossy, oversaturated disneyland screen. The company really struggles with quality since they focus on iPhones. IMHO.

I guess you're talking about the 20" which has a 6 bits screen, like laptops, that is lame. The 24" however has an 8 bit screen, it is a thing of beauty, I highly recommend it, it performs very well.

I don't think Mac products are sub-par first generation, I just think as with any technology there are sometimes issues. Anyway, G3s were not very good machines, Macs didn't start getting really good until G5s running OS X in my opinion. OS 9 was a lousy operating system, even Mac addicts will tell you that. I got my MacBook Pro this last summer and have been very happy with it; it's a great machine.

I have to disagree, the G4s were and still are some of the best processors put in Apple machines. I have a G5 and have had a number of issues with it, among which having both processors repolaced. I also use other G5s and they are not all plagued with issues. However I've seen and used many G4s, and yes they are old technology now, however they still run smoothly. The G4 next to my G5 starts up much faster for example, although it does have a lot less ram, a shame G4s are very limited in that aspect.

As to new computers, I think we'll see new MacPros soon, maybe today, were are a tuesday. Other models won't get a revision before MacWorld for sure.

Cheers,
Damien

 

[Yannick Hagman]

I guess you're talking about the 20" which has a 6 bits screen, like laptops, that is lame. The 24" however has an 8 bit screen, it is a thing of beauty, I highly recommend it, it performs very well.

No, both are glossy, they are like mirrors and they are oversaturated because of this. I would have bought one otherwise.. So I'm waiting to see if they learn their lesson.

 

[planet e]

they typically release new products and product upgrades after christmas...after milking the consumer for what they can....that's probably when i will be buying.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Other vendors are taking pre-orders for Penryn desktops and servers (HP, IBM/Lenovo and Dell are from their enterprise customers). These systems are scheduled for shipment in January -- seems to fit with Intel's current schedule. The new mobile chips won't release until late January or February sometime.

Given that, I'm betting on new Mac Pro systems in January. The announcement will probably come just before or during MacWorld. Updated Macbook [Pro] systems will probably come later... Like March/April.

Of course, only Apple knows for sure, but the Intel release schedule and what other PC vendors are doing is a pretty good indicator.

 

[Joe Vinson]

Dell released some new Xeon workstations today... pity Apple is behind the curve.

The Apple Store currently says the Clovertown processors in their Mac Pros are "the fastest Quad-Core Intel Xeon available," which hasn't been true for almost a month.

I had hoped that the switch to Intel chips would have erased Apple's need to announce hardware upgrades at big events -- that whenever new chips were released, you could get them as processor options immediately. Not the case.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Dell released some new Xeon workstations today... pity Apple is behind the curve.

Well, they just dropped a bomb on the industry with this one... I wouldn't say that Apple is behind the curve here. Apple did afterall, score the exclusive deal on the 3GHz Xeon chips for the first 90 days.

Now I wonder what the actual ship date on these systems will be. Intel hasn't even announced that they're shipping these CPUs yet. I'm guessing that announcement will happen anytime between now and the end of the week.

The Apple Store currently says the Clovertown processors in their Mac Pros are "the fastest Quad-Core Intel Xeon available," which hasn't been true for almost a month.

And that statement was true up until about 2 hours ago. Or it is still true until someone officially ships a new Penryn based system. Apple will update when they ship new systems, I suppose...

I had hoped that the switch to Intel chips would have erased Apple's need to announce hardware upgrades at big events -- that whenever new chips were released, you could get them as processor options immediately. Not the case.

Apple doesn't always announce at big events. Look at the Mac Pro release last year. Brand new system line and it just casually got announced on its own.

We'll see how this actually shakes out... Apple took so much flack over being slow to announce and release C2D notebooks. But when push came to shove, even though they appeared late, they were the third notebook maker in the world to ship a C2D notebook (behind HP and Toshiba) and the first to ship the 2.33GHz C2D mobile chip. ...Never mind Dell had been taking pre-orders for nearly a month before that, but had not actually shipped a single system.

To me, this is a good sign. It shows that Intel is right on schedule or even a week or two ahead.

 

[Joe Vinson]

It's true they don't always announce at big events, but more often than not. Not sure how you figure the Mac Pro "just casually got announced on its own"... it was part of the '06 WWDC keynote. (And the base processor hasn't changed since then.) If you're referring to when they upgraded to the Clovertown processors back in April, that's just because the processors had been released by Intel the previous November. Not the kind of thing you call attention to.

In my case, I wouldn't mind the early-announcement-and-preorder waiting game, 'cause most of my company's equipment purchases are at the end of the year, and at least I would know how long I'll have to hold out. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of Clovertown, 'cause I don't want to wait till April of '08.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

It's true they don't always announce at big events, but more often than not. Not sure how you figure the Mac Pro "just casually got announced on its own"... it was part of the '06 WWDC keynote. (And the base processor hasn't changed since then.) If you're referring to when they upgraded to the Clovertown processors back in April, that's just because the processors had been released by Intel the previous November. Not the kind of thing you call attention to.

I guess you're right about the Mac Pro.. It did get the WWDC announcement. So did the XServe, although the XServe page and a few other tidbits of info about it went online a few days before WWDC. True the base processor hasn't changed since then, but I'm not sure what they would change it to... I guess they could make all Mac Pro models an 8-core via two Clovertowns, but that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. IMO, Apple made the right move with the only 8-core offering being the dual 3GHz chips. It's really the only Clovertown option worth spending the money on. And Apple was the first to ship the 3GHz Clovertown chips as they secured the exclusive deal with Intel. OTOH, it's about options and I'm sure Apple could have sold a ton of Mac Pro systems had they shipped them with the slower Clovertown CPUs back when everyone else did.

In my case, I wouldn't mind the early-announcement-and-preorder waiting game, 'cause most of my company's equipment purchases are at the end of the year, and at least I would know how long I'll have to hold out. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of Clovertown, 'cause I don't want to wait till April of '08.

Apple still hasn't figured out the PC market, I don't think Jobs and his marketing gurus truly understand it. But I'm not sure they want to... They're so convinced of their own righteous approach that nothing else matters. I have to respect Apple for some of what they do -- very few companies can keep a secret as well as Apple can. And while their offerings can be somewhat restrictive or a little behind the market's bleeding edge, they continuously provide solid products that work (mostly) as advertised. Apple not announcing and taking pre-orders (or at least not more than a week or so in advance) is a little strange in this industry. I often wish Apple would do this, if only so I knew which products were coming up and what my options will be.

 

[SF Geek]

Thanks for the replies. So based on what I heard, if I get a new Macbook Pro this week then I won't be kicking myself because a new one will come out in 2 weeks. The consensus seems that spring will bring a new upgrade. I can live with that.

Also, will the video card that comes with the macbook pros be enough to run a 2k file on the 17" 1920x1200 version, smoothly? As of now I always get stuttering when playing any of the 2k vid files posted.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Video card has nothing to do with video playback in most situations, it's the hard drive, available RAM, etc.. that are the bottlenecks. But the current crop of Macbook Pro systems should handle 2K clips just fine. My 15" MBP handles 2K pro-res and h.264 clips just fine. Occasional stutters do occur when playing from the internal hard drive. My system is over a year old too.

The only issue regarding the current MBP with RED workflow that I see is the nVidia drivers from Apple. Nothing wrong with the nVidia GPU in these system (it's actually very good), but Apple's current crop of nVidia drivers kinda suck on the high-end and are a bit klunky with REDCINE. Thus RED is recommending ATI video cards on the Mac for now. ...Nothing we can do about that if we're buying a Macbook Pro though.

 

[SF Geek]

We can't replace the video card on the Mac Book Pro?

Do you think waiting to buy until a new spring model comes out is a good idea?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Video chipset on the Macbook Pro is integrated onto the logic board and non-upgradable. Most notebook video cards are non-upgradable, even the ones that are designed to be, really are not due to prohibitive pricing and untimely upgrade options... If upgrades even materialize.

If you don't need the system now, don't buy one. If you do need the system now, then I guess you'll have to buy one. Simple.