Well, maybe not. Apple may have good reason refusing warranty repairs to the computers of smokers, as proven by one of the customers who have his warranty money rendered useless: “[Steve] Jobs’ office did not help Derek, but he resolved some of the problems himself by disassembling his Macbook and cleaning it out with a can of compressed air.” Maybe it’s not the smoke, but the inevitable ash that flies around in a smoker’s environment.

Still, the least Apple could’ve done was state clearly within the AppleCare agreement that smoking may void the warranty. Apple’s protection program isn’t exactly cheap, and the company should at least make it even more clear what kind of activities will affect the warranty. Especially as it rolls out its own Black Friday promos.Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Source: Mac Rumors

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Marco: http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2008/10/macbook-and-macbook-pro-performance-october-2008/
Marco: not too much performance boost
Marco: even with ddr3
Rico: Lol, only the basic model has an appreciable boost
Marco: yeah
Marco: i told you
Marco: macbooks benefited more
Marco: benefited
Rico: especially with the discrete (but not dedicated) graphics
Marco: yeah
Marco: but it is cheaper
Marco: my probable advice would be
Marco: if you’re upgrading from a 3 year old laptop
Marco: its worth it
Marco: but if like me
Rico: hahaha, agreed
Marco: someone who just has bought an mbp
Marco: not really worth it
Marco: unless you have cash to burn
Marco: the lack of performance gains could also be in the drivers
Marco: remember apple writes their own chipset drivers
Marco: and this is the first time they’re writing for nvidia based chipsets
Marco: but regardless the gains are still negligible
Rico: So this could probably improve over time?
Rico: With updates and the like?
Marco: it is possible
Marco: but how much gain
Marco: is still probably minute
Marco: but the platform opens up very exciting possibilities when intel releases their nehalem family chips
Marco: which offer mobile quadcore
Marco: that with nvidia’s 9400m chipset could really usher in some amazingly fast notebooks by the start of next year
Marco: probably in june at macworld
Marco: future proofing has always been the forte of apple anyway
Rico: nehalem?
Marco: the next family of multicore processors
Marco: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Nehalem_(microarchitecture)
Marco: right now it’s penryn
Marco:
Marco: its also cool to note that apple thinks (well implied) that bluray will die soon.
Marco: i think bluray hasnt enjoyed the ubiquitous popularity of dvd
Marco: when dvd became standard
Marco: infact bluray sales are down this year
Rico: Ah, you mean all that talk about licensing complications keeping Apple from integrating Blu-Ray in the MacBook?
Marco: because people prefer to get their hd content online
Marco: lol
Marco: yeah its not licensing complications really
Marco: well that’s probably part of it
Marco: but i think its more of not adapting something that is close to extinction anyway
Marco: its cheaper to get your hd content via itunes
Marco: or hulu
Marco: than it is to buy a bluray disc
Marco: let alone a bluray capable burner
Marco: er
Marco: player
Marco: so i think apple believes that hd content’s future is through online distribution
Marco: rather than through physical media
Marco: like bluray
Marco: but of course they cant really say that
Marco: and that’s beside their official issues with licensing
Rico: I know I know, it’s Apple’s marketing magic at work again
Marco: hahah true

Post from: The Gadget Blog

So Jobs has finally spilled the beans on their new MacBooks, turning the MacBook into a sort of MacBook Pro lite. Friends who’ve been brainwashed by Apple’s marketing have expressed slight disappointment—who can blame ‘em? Here’s a short rundown on what Apple has to offer:

Pricing

Yes, Apple’s laptops (at least these two) feature a premium over similar PC counterparts. The MacBook starts at $1299. A similarly configured Dell XPS M1330—sans the DDR3 memory—is much cheaper, and can do more. Mobile broadband anyone? Forget what Apple says about configuring for standards that don’t exist yet. The Steve Jobs tax is very much alive, especially since you have to pay a whopping $2000 (at least) for the Macbook Pro.

Performance

Again, the key improvement of the new MacBooks are their use of DD3 memory. Basically, this means that the laptops’ respective processors can maximize the RAM, since they’re now both running at the same speed (1066Mhz). What does this mean for the average user? Not much, but hardcore users should enjoy some noticeable gains for intensive tasks like video editing and high-end gaming.

Apple has finally given its consumer laptop (MacBook) some significant power in the graphics department. The MacBook Pro as always features dedicated graphics. But why couldn’t Apple put the same magnitude of power in a 13.3″ frame? That would’ve been really new.

Form Factor

To make a long story short, both laptops are practically the same size as their predecessors. The differences are hardly noticeable to the naked eye, so let’s not spend more time here. To be fair though, every extra millimeter is important to portability freaks.

Looks

Obviously, the new MacBooks take a design cue from the current-generation iMacs. So there’s nothing revolutionary about how they look—Apple’s latest laptops still feature a distinctive and clean look that for some reason most PC manufacturers can’t compete with. It’s great that Apple decided to go with an all-aluminum main body, as it will prove more durable (and less prone to staining) than plastic.

To make a long story short, these new Apple laptops are mostly nothing new, with significant changes mainly limited to looks.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Here’s some serious upgrade power to MacBook Air’s older cousins, just in case you’d thought they’ve been sidelined. Just in case you don’t know, MacBook and MacBook Pro series have a built-in webcam.

The standard Apple MacBook upgrades include:

- 13-inch widescreen display.
- entry level model is a white MacBook with 2.1 GHz processor and 120 gigabytes of hard drive space but does not include built-in DVD burner.
- black variant has 250 GB capacity priced at 1,399 dollars but does not include built-in DVD burner.

The Apple MacBook Pro gets :

- Core 2 Duo processor up to 2.6 gigahertz of processing power
- up to 4 Gigabytes (GB) of 667 megahertz DDR2 SDRAM
- up to 300 GB of storage space
- Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT video card up to 512 MB of RAM.
This MacBook Pros price goes between 1,799 and 2,499 dollars.
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image source

Post from: The Gadget Blog