RSSNew MacBooks drop ExpressCard and removable battery
By Tim Conneally | Published June 8, 2009, 2:01 PM
Sporting new displays, a new non-removable Lithium Polymer battery with a promised 7-hour charge, an SD card slot in place of ExpressCard slots, and offering a new 13" option, Apple's 2009 notebooks comprise its "most affordable lineup ever."
At the bottom of the revised lineup is the new 13" aluminum unibody MacBook Pro, with a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB and SD card slot for $1,199. This can be upgraded to a 2.54 GHz Core2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, and 250 GB of storage for $1,499.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro line can be configured with a 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo, 250 GB HDD, and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics for $1,699; a 2.66 GHz CPU with 320 GB HDD and Dual 9400M/9600M GT Nvidia GPUs for $1,999, or 2.8 GHz, 500 GB HDD and dual GPUs for $2,299. The 15-inch line comes with 4 GB RAM across the board and dropped $300 in price.
The 17-inch MacBook Pro also dropped $300 in price, and offers most of the same specs as the top-of-the-line 15-inch model, but it is the only of the new MacBook Pros to retain the ExpressCard slot.
All of the new MacBook Pros can be upgraded to 8 GB of RAM, and either a 500 GB HDD or 256 GB SSD; and the 15" and 17" models can be upgraded to a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU.
Additionally, the MacBook Air platform was upgraded slightly in power while dropping in price. Equipped with a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo and 120 GB SSD and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processor, the baseline Air will run $1,499. A 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo and 128 GB SSD model will cost $1,799.
I apologize in advance if my question is silly but I come here to improve my knowledge – So my question is this- Are all Mac laptops or otherwise OS 64 bit compatible?
Score: 0
|yes OSX like 10.1 or 10.2 or something added some 64bit support years ago. the philosophy behind Macs is that most people dont want to know or care what the specs of their system are or understand why things work, only that they do.
Yes it supports full usage of >4GB RAM
Score: 0
|It's technically both still yes and no. Some is, some isn't.
Only with the upcoming 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will it be fully 64-bit.
Score: 0
|... as well as still supporting 32bit applications.
All the drivers and so forth will be 64bit. Native mac applications such as Finder will also be 64bit.
Score: 0
|As an Apple user, I must say that I am disappointed by this announcement.
Where is the bluray that can be found in pretty much every Acer laptop these days?
Where is the HDMI that can be found on every $500 Compaq or HP laptop?
Only x2 USB ports, and now you remove the ExpressCard slot that allowed us to expand that?
Sure, some may say that these features should be reserved for the more exclusive/pricier models, but correct me if I'm wrong, these features are not even available for the Pro range of laptops offered by apple.
Time to listen to what your people want Apple, don't take your popularity and sleek looking hardware/OS's as the ultimate selling factor because believe me, you will fall on your face if you cannot address market/competition. If you offer a propriety system, then at least make it convincing.
/harsh criticism. Please understand the context of what has been said.
Score: 0
|'m not thrilled either but 2 more hours of battery life from the wasted space doesn't sound so bad, until we're at the Genius Bar figuring up the replacement costs in 5-6 years. I just replaced my PowerBook battery that I got in 2005, so I'm not extremely worried.
>
>
Then you're a fool. Never buy anything that has something as lame as a non-removable battery, for no other reason than to protect the hardware when the battery starts leaking and you have to replace it.
Score: 0
|We're not talking about alkaline batteries here.
If your lithium batteries leak, you're dealing with the wrong company. I use a variety of lithium ion and NiMH batteries and have yet to have a problem like that.
Apple already has a fine track record with the iPods and if you are so concerned about something you're probably not going to buy anyway, it's not me who is the fool.
Score: 0
|Sporting new displays, a new non-removable Lithium Polymer battery with a promised 7-hour charge, an SD card slot in place of ExpressCard slots, and offering a new 13" option, Apple's 2009 notebooks comprise its "most affordable lineup ever."
>
>
Is this some kind of joke? Do the idiots at Apple actually think that SD card slots and ExpressCard slots are fuctionally the same?
Sheesh..........
Score: 0
|Exactly. Remove ExpressCard? That's the fastest available I/O for a laptop when running in PCI Express mode. My lowest-end HP notebook came with an ExpressCard, HDMI, FireWire 400, SD/MMC/XD/Memory Stick/MSPro slots.
Score: 0
|sumone
Jun 9, 2009 - 3:21 AM
Exactly. Remove ExpressCard? That's the fastest available I/O for a laptop when running in PCI Express mode. My lowest-end HP notebook came with an ExpressCard, HDMI, FireWire 400, SD/MMC/XD/Memory Stick/MSPro slots.
>
>
Hell, so does the Toshiba and other laptops you can buy at Wal-Mart starting at around $400.
Score: 0
|Why do people buy macs again?
Score: 0
|Because the operating system is pretty nice. Each to their own.
If you're someone who replaces their laptop every year or sooner then the prices really ain't gunna be for you. If you keep on to your comp for quite a while and still want it to work, they build very solid systems now (not so much previously).
Score: 0
|Really they last along time?? 3-5 year is about the life of the OS/hardware. Yes AppleCare is super nifty also...
I want to know how many people have really become rich from iPhone apps???
Score: 0
|I used to wonder the same thing. In fact, I still hate the Classic OS with a fiery passion. I got into the advertising business and quickly learned my way around Mac OS X and began to appreciate them. Especially when we took an old, beige Performa with a RAM upgrade and got OS X 10.3 and Photoshop CS working on it without issue. In fact, I still have a G3 iBook that I use as a personal web server at the moment. You can exploit the hell out of a Mac for a very long time.
Score: 0
|Never like it when they make a battery non-removable..
Score: 2
|Makes it even more disposable than it already is.
Score: 0
|I'm not thrilled either but 2 more hours of battery life from the wasted space doesn't sound so bad, until we're at the Genius Bar figuring up the replacement costs in 5-6 years. I just replaced my PowerBook battery that I got in 2005, so I'm not extremely worried.
Score: 0
|The sneaky bas****s dropped the NVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics chip from the cheapest 15" MacBook Pro.
Score: 1
|However, you still get it at the same price and you get a step up in processor speed from the bottom.
Score: 0
|