@Golds: I agree. I hope that they have a setting that allows users to use this new trackpad like an old one. It seems it would be fairly simple to implement: simply forget the whole thing is a button and allow users to click the pad as if the bottom of it was the class trackpad button. This would allow for dragging and dropping of files (that is, if the multi-finger gesture swipe was turned off).

AndrewtheStudent

@beekerstudios: You are correct about FW 800 being backward compatible with FW 400. The adapter is all you need and I bet Apple includes one in the box.

Tank

@awperk: Go with the flow of life, don't resist (it makes things harder otherwise).

trendspotter

No Blueray? Kinda weak, but maybe irrelevant until combo burner drives exist.

No Firewire? This kills me because I've built a 4TB data/backup array daisy chained through FW400

No Express Card? At least this would let me add EVDO, Firewire, E-SATA, etc if I needed it.

I think the new MacBook will push certain people into MacBook Pros now, but people who want the added speed and features but don't want a 15" screen are out of luck. Fortunately, I'm probably 2 years out from my obligatory upgrade cycle.

TorkLugnutz

@enchantedduck:

I'll second that. They took what I hate about the iMac and what I hate about the Air and combined them into the worst Apple laptop ever. That black rim around the screen is obnoxious and the black keyboard on silver body looks extremely awkward. I will stick with my black Macbook for a very long time.

mms1648

@coverofnight: Why couldnt you return it, you would be well within their return policy.

pdditty

@mcnasby: My MacBook Pro has some pretty good speakers for a lappy.

pdditty

@beekerstudios: MBP has FW 800 but the MB has only USB for peripheral attachment. Also the MP does not have an expresscard slot.

dopplerd

@whatachiouche: Actually the tap once and drag is standard on Synaptics touchpads as well so if u dont have a mac book it works too.

Zomb

@coverofnight: You will likely at least be able to get some money back. Apple refunds price differentials for customers who purchased within a month of a product upgrade.

trendspotter

every time i look at one of these pictures of the new macbooks i can't help but focus on trying to see whats in the screen reflections. this makes me believe i could never ever use one of them considering that is my biggest annoyance with laptop screens. i've tried to stay away from glossy screens and it's getting harder and harder

awperk

@mcnasby: Name one lappy that has "good speakers".... yah none! Unless Meyer is putting tiny speakers in lappy's and I don't know. [www.meyersound.com]

beekerstudios

@lolec: The glass kills me! I love matte, why can't they just improve the brightness/clarity of the matte screens

beekerstudios

@EricLA2NYC: I could be wrong but FW 800 is backwards compatible with FW 400, meaning all you need is one of these suckers: [www.amazon.com] And you are good to go. I know my old miniDV camera would be more than just antiquated by it's resolution if that were the case. P.S. You can also get an expresscard 34 FW400 card, in fact I have considered getting one even for my MBP so I had more direct inputs.

beekerstudios

@HYPEractive: Neither is the EEE box, yet it holds many of the same feature-set as the eee pc netbook. It's essentially a headless laptop in a smaller but taller form factor. If they had released one with 50% of the graphic power as my MBP as apposed to the 11% I would have considered it. As it is now I have an older mac mini hanging off a 52" display and it's severely lacking in the GPU area. If it had a discrete, or gosh a discrete and an embedded like the lappies, than it would be awesome!

beekerstudios

I don't like the battery indicator hanging out like that. Put a burka on that thing. It's bringing shame to my family.

D.E.P.C.

@mcnasby: from here [www.apple.com]

quote:
Illuminated keyboard*
*Only available on 2.4GHz model.
/quote

PhyrePhox

Say I just bought the macbook two days before they announced there was a conference. Is it worth trying to return it and get a new one?

Hypothetical situation of course...

coverofnight

Whst bout the macbook white?

[www.apple.com]
[www.apple.com]
[www.apple.com]

Wess

god this thing is ugly im sorry

enchantedduck

How are the speakers on the Macbook? Same sort of garbage as on the previous version, or are they a considerable improvement?

mcnasby

@mcnasby: I second that!

theravenfakeaccount

If the game-performance would have been better, this would have been an interesting...uhm..."little brother" for my 17" MBP I use on Lan-Partys to play BF2 and other 2 Year old games on.

But the term "little brother" reminds me of how much I need a macbook: not at all.

iPeg

I dont like the new design that much, i will buy an Air now.

lolec

I don't think I saw anything about the rumor a day or two ago that the MacBook won't have Firewire. Is that true?

EricLA2NYC

@mnerd: It would be nice if they would bump the specs (graphics) on the Mini so you could use it with the new displays... of course then you're just getting into iMac territory.

trendspotter

@Axilon: Probably the same as you currently do (without using the button)...a quick tap then hold your finger on the trackpad while you drag the file. Then tap once to let it go (if you have drag-lock on). Take a look in system preferences>keyboard and mouse now and you will see all of the options if you have an apple notebook

whatachiouche

sooooooo not digging that keyboard. it really looks cheep, and looks pretty PC. ugh! i'm also quite nervous about the trackpad, but if i could figure out the one on the last model i'm sure i'll be fine. not liking the power button, either. i'm not sure why; will talk to my therapist about the aversion to this one. ;)

i can't tell about the right side, but i'm THRILLED to see two USB ports on the left. are there any more USB ports on the right side? i had to get an extender for my Black Cherry external HD, and look completely dorky trying to maneuver all of it into place. huzzah!

lolabella

So is the hard drive and ram still "user upgradeable"? They mentioned the Pro, but not the MacBook.

voltron80

The new LED display will power the new line of MacBooks/PRO/AIR. NICE!!!!

G-stylez

how easy is it to drag things? i mean, pressing down on glass and sliding? that glass had better be beyond silky smooth for that to work effectively.

willyolio

The mini isn't a notebook

HYPEractive

What about the mini? Its not been updated in well over a year. Maybe it really is dead.

mnerd

Arg, there needs to be more focus on the usability of this trackpad-is-the-button feature.

What happens if you need to drag something further than the width of the trackpad? presumably if you hold one finger down to hold a button, and use another finger to drag something around, it'd be registered as a multitouch swipe gesture.

There are lots of import ant usability questions that need to be answered!

Golds

I see chicklets

Brookespeed

I just looked on the Apple website... It says that even the lower end, $1299 model has the backlit keyboard. However, in the keynote, that feature was omitted from the $1299 slide. Can you guys clarify whether it does/does not have a backlit keyboard?

mcnasby

My one question for the trackpad is how do you drag files? Three finger gestures?

Axilon

@pdditty: Absolutely. However, don't forget the 10% you WON'T get back due to their open box policy.

G-Ram

@PhyrePhox:

Looks like someone has some revising to do...

Screen shot of Apple store specs

mcnasby

@TorkLugnutz: it's burning me too even though i don't have a lot that has firewire,
it's faster than usb2 plain and simple

it's used by people who make films on the move

and the iMac now has firewire 800 so why on earth get rid of it?!

Gonzie

@dopplerd: therein lies why someone would get a MBP as apposed to just a macbook. My SO is just fine with the I/O on her MB, but I myself plug so much stuff into my lappy, that the more I/O I have, including expresscard 34 (for my sata II external capture storage) the better I am, even if it means a couple of extra bucks. At least the graphics, and the overall construction is the same, which is my major complaint with the plastic macs, also why I still like my 1g iphone better than my friends 3g

beekerstudios

@beekerstudios: Yeah, I would love to see that-"And we now have the UPM-1P (L) series-Ultra Compact now in a Laptop form"

Lupus_Yonderboy

@pdditty: compared to my near field, and transparent studio speakers, it's a moot point. My point was that if one is seriously looking for "good sound", they aren't evaluating speakers in laptops for that, they are evaluating speaker systems, and sound recording/playback devices (digidesign?). I would agree that the audio output on my mac is far less noisy, than on almost any PC, or PC laptop I have come across. That is pretty much rooted in the fact that many people, whether amateur or professional look to the mac to do music of some sorts.

beekerstudios

after school tomorrow me and my friend will be at the apple store hogging the new compies

jspec1594

yeah, no Firewire...wtf! And why is the applecare the same price as the pro?

cgi5877

@AndrewtheStudent: classic* trackpad button

AndrewtheStudent

@PDSM: macbooks don't have firewire at all, just the pros

Gonzie

@Gonzie:

They make cheap FW 400 to 800 cables . Relax.

PDSM

It seems that when you order a MacBook you can only get a hard drive @5400RPM. Does anyone know if the new MacBook still uses a 2.5" hard drive, and whether it will be replaceable by yourself?

AlvaJebbers

@yogibimbi: any intel machine can boot from a usb 2.0 drive.

srdailey

so, when there is no FW and my computer breaks down, I am pretty much f...ed, even though I might have backed up vicariously, since I cannot start up from an external drive? That sucks!

yogibimbi

'But'???

yogibimbi

this sucks. they are only giving a $50 dollar education discount on the macbooks and $100 on the MBPs. talk about money grubbing.

KenyonLagit

so new MacBook or refurb MacBook Pro?
[store.apple.com]

brendanm14

@Golds: only silly pc users do stuff like that. think different!

Johnny Chimpo

@mcnasby: yah I was gonna say the same thing- they need to clarify that shit. Which is it? Anyone know?

Dr. Paul Proteus

Yeah, no Firewire = downgrade. Price is ridiculous. Apple is buying most of its internal components from the same OEM consortium as Sony and Dell, so we now are paying Apple in excess of $500 for cool looking hardware that gets more and more cheap looking with each iteration. Not only that but now they're rubbing our noses in the fact that their innovations let them produce this hardware for less and less while charging us more and more. Audacious doesn't even begin to describe.

I am a huge Mac fan (and occasional reluctant PC user) and will always use MacOS as my primary computing experience. Its stuff like this that drove me to purchase the EFi-X. I love my black plastic macbook but unless Apple awakes to the going rate of tech, my next notebook will be a hackintosh. Its so sad, Apple was starting to get some momentum and make some marketshare inroads. This is no question a huge step backwards for Apple.

barkolounger

I'm 2 years into my Blackbook purchase and although the new machines look nice, I think I will wait till the next update for two reasons. 1. No doubt their will be teething problems with a new design. 2. Apple always takes into account features that people want. Firewire will probably make a comeback just as it did after the first Intel Macbook Pro was released with Rev. 2. 3. There will be a price drop and possibly a lower end model to replace the White MB they're keeping around. No sense in running two production processes. 4. Intel Platform shift for notebooks is due in first half of new year.

BurtonSukari

what about target disk mode? anything on that? no firewire so i assume its gone... which kills the macbook for me... and i can't afford the stinkin macbook pro, nor would i want a computer that huge.

PhoebeDaedalus

Well now I've decided, a Sony FW it is. For the same money as the MB I get Blue Ray, HDMI, 320gb and that is enough for me.

CadmanAegialeus

sad i was hoping that a new version of a black macbook would of been presented.

MaribelMacer

Is it just me or is everyone grazing over the fact that the processor in the "mid" range MacBook is SLOWER than that of the previous version? They went from 2.4ghz to 2.0ghz with the same RAM, same HDD as well. I mean the new case, graphics, LED back light and touchpad are cool and all, but why would you make a laptop SLOWER then the previous version? Am I missing something?

BerwinFuries

So the low end ($1299) silver MacBook comes with a 2.0GHz CPU. Does that mean it will actually be slower than my 2.4GHz white MacBook, or am I missing something?

GroverThyestes

Will boot camp run out of the box or will there be a update for the new chipset?

UmitPraeconinus

I can't wait to plug my Firewire External hard drive in there. Oh. Wait. Seriously, Apple, WTF.

ShraddhaDandoo

LOL no firewire!!! most of new computers come with hdmi and sata connectors.
After im selling my last gen macbook pro i am getting a regular pc laptop. Screw that! ;)

biofreak

@AlvaJebbers: They're both user-serviceable.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

I would recommend that anyone with a recent Macbook/Macbook pro just live out the term with their current system and wait until revisions 3 or 4. Your system can hold out until then. Don't fall for it! I'm going to wait for rev.4 of this line, unless my Macbook runs into irreparable circumstances.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@PhoebeDaedalus: Exactly. When I do a migration assistant, I now have to just hook an external hard drive on the USB and then hook it up to the new system. When I bought my Macbook, I used target disk mode to do a full data transfer of all of my settings to the new computer, and it worked like a charm.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@mms1648: What I find is that people always hate the new Macbooks, but so many more people start swooning over them to replace the people that used to love them. It's like the circle of life :S

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@beekerstudios: My Dell Inspiron 8200 would mop the floor with any Macbook in terms of speaker quality. They're not going to appeal to people who need as much audio fidelity as they can get, but they can be heard across the room full of people talking at mid to high volume, and are not so tinny that watching an entire TV episode is unbearable. That said, my Harmon/Kardon desktop speakers kick the shit out of both.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@voltron80: The case design is essentially the same. It was just touted on the Pro because it was still limited while the Macbook enjoyed it for over 3 years.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@MaribelMacer: +1

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@GroverThyestes: Well, the front system bus on the new models is about double what your system has I believe, so that'll probably help with the pace.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references

@BerwinFuries: Graphics card… The mid-range will not be slower; (particularly if snow leopard does what it promises). I would think that, just from a marketing perspective, it would have been prudent to give the two, at least, the same processor speed.

WalkerP

R.I.P. Black MacBook!

prady16

@BerwinFuries: The processor in the previous MacBook had a higher clock speed, BUT it also had a slower bus ratio to the CPU (1:3) vs. 1:2 in the current base model; RAM ran even slower than that (1:4) vs. 1:2; the GPU is much improved, and the CPU itself in the white MB was an older iteration of the C2D.

Overall, the new one looks like it should be more powerful. Can't wait for the benchmarks.

BeowulfRex

no Firewire 400 as well. Sorry Final Cut Express and iMovie Users... you had better get a bigger internal Hard Drive and but a new AVCHD Camera... All your HDV and DV Are belong to us.

benjello

I wonder if it'll recognized "the shocker".

mklpickle

@mcnasby: you're at the Apple Education store because adding 2 gigs of ram actually costs 150 normally. The education discount gave you a reduced price.

Ausl0

Hmm... Should I get the 2.4 to replace my (third revision) mb 2.0 or wait until the new line is updated at least three times. I've read from a few people that the first gen of a new product from apple is a gamble. Look at all the people who had/have problems with the original iphone and 3g iphone. The bugs and shortcomings STILL haven't been worked out yet. As tempting as it is to me, my gut tells me to wait for a couple more speed bumps in this new line so they will have things more dialed in. IMHO, new stuff is rushed to market too fast and they figure they'll fix the potential problems later. I gotta keep telling myself to be patient and wait, it will be worth it. As for the led backlighting issue, I'm not impressed. Remember them telling you how much longer leds last than compaired to other light sources? Ever seen bus's, trucks, or traffic signals that use leds and some are not working? That would suck major balls if some of the leds in the display start dying later on down the line...

TamarOpeth

@Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references: Second that

ten10

@TamarOpeth:
I think I will wait as well, I bought my black Macbook a few months ago and it will suit me fine until they put out a Macbook with a little beefer specs.

TripZ

@BeowulfRex:

Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't notice any speed comparison tests like they usually do at these keynotes for a new product...

geedots

@Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E n' Cookie references:
Not to mention, better integrated graphics.

DisposableInterloper

I thought the color was tad out. My first generation MacBook is killing me of its speed but I think it looks classier. Maybe they wanted the silver and black together that matches the iPhone? I don't know what to do with my MacBook.

BaileyGerbil

@Ausl0:
I purchased the 2.0 Macbook while the specs stated it did not have illuminated keyboard (as did the keynote) but the checkout page and configuration page showed it having it. I called thewy said yes, so I bought it. My firend called and they said no, only the 2.4...I complained and they gave the $100 credit off the 2.4....not bad!!!

SamitBabalique

Stats are weak. It doesnt look good. Has many disadvantages when comparing to some Pc's out there. My opinion- waste of money.

cyf911

@Ausl0:
I purchased the 2.0 Macbook while the specs stated it did not have illuminated keyboard (as did the keynote) but the checkout page and configuration page showed it having it. I called thewy said yes, so I bought it. My firend called and they said no, only the 2.4...I complained and they gave the $100 credit off the 2.4....not bad!!!

OctaviaTrio

I seriously think that apple may have taken a step backwards here, yeah, we all wanted a better graphics card and whatnot, but, i like my button trackpad, as the button-less trackpad seems like it would pose a problem with dragging files, right-clicking and general mouse stuff. The backlit display is a good feature, however. cant argue with that. However, a slower processor made me think twice about buying a new macbook. Better luck next time, apple.

LilKaplah

So all those files I backed up on my FireWire drive before my old laptop died... they're stuck there unless I get a MBP, huh? Wonderful.

MargotArgos

I think I was the first to order, got the Macbook fully loaded. Can't wait!!!!

LambertSeagull

wow i love this new macbook. I just recently bought a 24in iMac. I should've definitely waited for this bad boy!!!

Arora370

all you people must be crazy!! I love the new macbook!! I just recently bought a 24in iMac. Should've definitely waited for this bad boy!!

Arora370

Has the screen viewing angle improved over the previous MacBooks?

GarretCarson

hellll no it isnt. you must be on crack!! i just bought a 24" iMac. Definitely should've waited to get this bad boy!!!!

Arora370

@UmitPraeconinus: it should run because the only difference is the chipset driver and new Mac OS X install disks MUST include them.

krmby

That duck isn't ugly. What I find disturbing is the absense of matte screens and firewire.

WestonGadha

Aside from those with firewire devices and being able to transfer data between two macs, why is that loss such a big deal to many when the transfer speeds of firewire 400 and USB 2.0 are nearly identical? It's not like the previous MBs had firewire 800 and it was dumped.

IngridJalooner

So it looks like according to the apple website that both new macbook price points include backlit keyboards. Typo?

DarleneFronto

I worry about the durability of the glass screens. Would they survive a fall? If your MacBook was sitting on the sofa and someone accidentally sat on the corner, would the screen snap? Any predictions about how durable these books will be?

SameenaAdephagia

Anyone notice that they are charging for the remote and the VGA dongle now? I can understand pulling the FW (other than a few folks, I don't see too may consumer types using FW drives on a laptop), but the remote and the VGA dongle being extra is just plain CHEAP. Heck, I'm a big Apple fan, but this is just a bit outlandish. Will we be paying extra for the power supply next?

VidorPera

Sorry guys, I love the glossy screens and I don't have anything that uses a fire wire connection.

I like the idea that this macbook feels significant, and not cheap and "plasticly" like the previous gen.

eyephone