The new MacBook Pros now all come with sealed batteries. This was just once the territory of the mighty 17 inch model. Not anymore. The recent refresh brought that technology to its smaller siblings, the 15 inch and the recent addition to the MacBook Pro line-up the 13 inch.

MacBook Pro Family, Image courtesy of Apple Inc.

According to Walt Mossberg who had the chance to test both the 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pro and put it through the paces of his own battery test, both laptops performed well. The 13 inch lasted a slighty below the 5 hour mark while the 15 inch was 21 minutes above the 5 hour marker. This says well considering no power saving feature was turned on and the screen brightness was cranked up. In normal usage, expect battery life to be even slightly higher.

I for one was at first skeptical of the notion that I can’t replace the battery of my laptop. However looking back, ever since I’ve owned a laptop, I’ve never bought a spare battery. Hmmm… I guess I just like the thought that I could replace it if I wanted to. Mossberg cites in his article that only less than 5% of consumers actually buy spare batteries. This figure was from NPD, a research firm. I would believe that this figure is close to the truth.

I guess we just need to let go of our need to control things and trust that technology works. Apple was able to increase battery size and life in its MacBook Pro line of computers without adding weight or heft. I guess its a decent trade-off to the fact that you can’t replace it yourself. Apple also claims that their batteries will last up to 5 years. So by the time it’s time to change batteries it’s also time to change computers.

So we’ll see in the days to come if indeed sealed batteries are the way to go.

Last June 8 Apple revamped it’s line of portable computers. The most significant change being the renaming of the aluminum MacBook to the MacBook Pro. So now there are 3 sizes for the MacBook Pro, the 13, 15 and 17 inch models. Reminiscent to the previous Powerbook line up. While this move is good, it leaves the MacBook line with only the white polycarbonate level. That’s it. One model, not even a variation of it. Just one.

MacBook image Courtesy of Apple

What does this mean? Why did Apple leave it as such? I think Apple has something up it’s sleeve. My guess is that the we’ll be seeing a new MacBook quite soon. It might be the “netbook” people have been clamoring about. A cheap, light mac that can compete with the netbooks being currently offered.

I don’t believe that Apple will just keep the MacBook at a single model. They’re neglecting a significant market if they did. The MacBook is primarily aimed at consumers and the MacBook Pros to well.. pros.

The Pro line-up is currently full and it’s looking great. The MacBook Air while it serves a niche market still has a wider range than the MacBook line that has a broader market. So I don’t think it will stay as is. Plus the white polycarbonate body is getting old and is in need of a refresh as well.

So let’s see what happens in the coming months.

Apple’s WWDC 2009 is underway and it opened with the keynote speech which featured some new Apple stuff. Below is a roundup of the notable items.

WWDC 2009 - Image courtesy of Apple

New MacBook Pro Lineup

I don’t think anyone saw this coming. At least not for this event. Apple just revamped it’s MacBook Pro line. Releasing an all new 15 inch MacBook Pro which now sports a similar battery to the 17 inch. Promising battery life of up to 7 hours. Another notable thing is the swapping out of the express slot with a SD card reader.

Another thing is that the MacBook Aluminum is now rebranded as the 13 inch MacBook Pro. It shares similar specs to it’s 15″ brother. The 13 inch model also now comes with a FW800 port.

What’s also outrageous (in a good way) is that the MacBook Pros prices have been reduced significantly. The 13″ starts at $1199 while the 15″ starts at $1699.

The white polycarbonate MacBook now remains as the only MacBook model available.

MacBook Air updated

Apple also updated MacBook Air models. The new entry level MacBook Air sports a 1.86 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor with a 120GB Hard drive while the higher end model has a 2.13 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor and a 128GB Solid State Drive. The 1.86 Ghz’s price starts at $1,499 while the 2.13 Ghz is priced at $1,799. Making both of them easily the most bang-for-buck MacBook Airs yet.

Snow Leopard

A preview of Snow Leopard was demoed during the keynote. What can I say except that I’m really excited to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Apple is also making it available to exisitng Leopard users for a low low $29 for a single user license and $49 for a Family Pack. Beat that Windows!

There are a lot of great features that come with Snow Leopard, such as a rewritten Finder, Expose controls via the dock and the new Quicktime X.

However with all of these refinements I think the most important of which is Exchange support. Sure, not all will agree but I think it’s the most important feature because it now allows Macs to really compete and penetrate the corporate market. Companies rely on Microsoft Exchange for their corporate communication needs and now the Mac can play with them. That means IT companies can now adopt Macs for some if not all of their users. That will significantly help improve market share for Apple.

iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0 OS

The iPhone and the iPhone 3.0 OS were the most anticipated announcements of the keynote. Apple previewed the new OS which I must say is getting better all the time. I can’t believe people are actually clapping and shouting with the announcement of the copy and past feature and MMS. It’s something that people have been really clamoring for. However true to Apple form, they won’t do something unless they can do it right. I think their version of copy and paste is good and will work really well with the iPhone interface.

The 3.0 software boasts of a 100 new features. I mentioned copy and paste, other notable features are spotlight search, new Safari, landscape version of the keyboard, better parental controls, the ability to record and send audio, voice control app, etc.

What I really liked was the “Find My iPhone” feature. This is available to iPhone users who are Mobile Me subscribers as well. In the event that you lose your iPhone, you can login to Mobile Me and send your iPhone a message. It will also tell you where your iPhone is. If in fact it has been stolen and not just misplaced, you can send it a command to erase all of your data. Some people are saying that there might be a privacy issue and that people can use it to track you without your knowledge, but this technology has already been embedded in most phones sold in the US which have built-in GPS chips to help authorities track people in case of emergencies. So this is not something that’s exclusive to the iPhone.

Some very cool demos were shown during the keynote albeit there were some malfunctions or mishaps that occured. I love medical app from AirStrip CC which allows doctors to monitor patients with a remote sensor. It feeds the iPhone the relevant data of the patient and can alert doctors when certain parameters are reached. I’ve always been a proponent of better technologies for health and medical services. This looks to really be a promising one.

All in all the WWDC keynore was great. Steve didn’t make an appearance though but it’s ok. It shows that Apple can exist and put on a good show even if he’s not there. It would have been better though but the other guys at Apple still did a good job.

I love almost all things about my MacBook Pro, except the battery life. I’ve been reading about it in several forums/web sites and it seems that the poor battery life affects mostly the 2.53 ghz models. The 2.4 ghz model seems to be getting a decent battery life.

However I discovered that it may not be the battery at all. It may be something else. I brought my battery to my neighborhood Apple Certified Service Center to have them check it and they loaned me a spare battery, it was the same. I was still only getting slightly over 1 hour and 30 mins with my MacBook Pro. This is unacceptable!

Just a week ago I was getting a decent 2 hours and 30 mins with the dedicated 9600M NVDIA graphics card, WiFi turned on and brightness at 3/4 setting.

So it’s not the battery but something else that’s causing this. What? I don’t know. I have yet to find out.

How’s your Unibody MacBook Pro battery life? Please share it with me and let me know as well if you’re happy or disappointed with what you’re getting.

I came across an amazing link at Digg.com and was going to post it up but there were two problems. 1) The site was already down (Error 500, what?), and 2) There was a comment posted part way down the page that takes the cake when it comes to fixing PCs:

No, I will not fix your computer. Why?
a) It’s a Mac so I don’t ***** know how.
b) Jobs said it wouldn’t break.
        -From: krystalo, a Digg user

Once I finished laughing out loud, I realized something — this is very true! People bring their devices into the IT shop all the time without any regard for what the device is. Take for instance, a 2000 computer global company.

They run entirely on Windows. Their desktops, Windows XP, their laptops, Windows XP, their servers, Windows Server — see, all Windows. Along comes Mr. I Want It (IWI) with his MacBook Pro or iTouch or iPhone. He plops it down on the desk and says, “Hey, my kid broke this, can you fix it?”
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