Apple introduces the new MacBook Pro
Apple has announced the refreshed MacBook Pro, and almost all of the rumors were spot on.
Apple uses lasers and water jets in their new process for making notebooks to carve out what they call a unibody for the new MacBook Pro. The old way was problematic for notebooks like the Pro.
“One of the problems is designing something as thin and light as the Pro, but making it strong.“
The new process begins with a solid piece of aluminum and carves away the cavity instead of bending the aluminum and reinforcing it.
“We discovered if we started with a thick piece of aluminum we could make a lighter and stronger part.“
They start with 2.5 lbs of aluminum and end up with an enclosure that weighs .25 lbs, not bad.
Here’s a breakdown of the features on the new MacBook Pro.
- Precision aluminum unibody enclosure
- Glass covered, LED backlit screen.
- Dual GPUs. Both new NVIDIAs, one 9400M, and a 9600M GT.
- Glass multitouch trackpad
- Black keyboard
- Mini Display Port connector capable of driving a 30 inch display
- Firewire 800 port
- .95 inches thin
- 37% smaller packaging
The NVIDIA 9400M is part GPU and part chipset on the same die. It’s 70% GPU, with 16 parallel cores, 54 gigaflops of processing power. All of this adds up to about 5 times faster graphics power than Apple’s past notebooks. The NVIDIA 9600M GT has 32 parallel graphics cores, 120 gigaflops of processing power, and 512MB of memory. The 9600M GT is used for ‘Turbo Mode.“ You can choose either of the processors, but presumably not both. There’s about an hour of battery life difference, either 5 or 4 hours.
The new glass trackpad is 37% larger, has new four fingered gestures, and is one big button than can be set with software to perform as a multibutton trackpad. The glass provides ‘silky smooth’ travel.
Apple has two models and Steve summarizes it best.
“And of course, 802.11n, Bluetooth… .95 inches, our thinnest MBP ever. It’s going to come in two models. The first, $1999, 15.4 inch display, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA 9400 and 9600. We have a second config at $2499, you get a faster CPU with double cache, 4GB RAM, double graphics memory, 320GB hard drive.“
This is also the first Macbook Pro to have a SSD option, but you’re likely to pay dearly for it.
These notebooks are shipping today and in stores tomorrow, so get that credit card ready!
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I guess the meaning of the word will change since it is most often misused, but there is a difference between “use” and “utilize” as follows:
You use a key to open a door
You utilize a credit card to open a door.
You use a screwdriver to put in a screw
You utilize a hammer to put in a screw
The MacBook Pro doesn’t “utilize” or even “use” Apple’s new way of making laptops. MacBook Pros are great machines but they don’t manufacture themselves. Apple uses its new way of making laptops to make the MacBook Pro.
on October 15, 2008 at 07:30 AM - LINK