“We’re not calling it official until Steve pulls the cloth off himself tomorrow morning. Still, there’s no denying the similarities between this image and all those other case leaks we’ve seen, and the list of specs we’ve been given matches up as well — that ‘metal and glass’ enclosure now houses an NVIDIA GPU, but no FireWire 400, and video-out is apparently through a connector “more compact” than MicroDVI. We’ll find out soon enough — oh, and just to amp up expectations, Boy Genius says he’s confirmed the existence of an $899 part number in Apple’s retail systems,” Nilay Patel reports for Engadget.
“It’s [got] two full-on NVIDIA GPUs — sounds like a hybrid SLI setup to us, which is pretty wild. Wilder still, they say the MacBook and 17-inch MacBook Pro aren’t getting refreshed,” Patel reports.
MacDailyNews Note: NVIDIA describes Hybrid SLI technology: Based on NVIDIA’s industry-leading SLI technology, delivers multi-GPU (graphics processing unit) benefits when an NVIDIA motherboard GPU is combined with an NVIDIA discrete GPU. Hybrid SLI increases graphics performance with GeForce Boost and provides intelligent power management with HybridPower.
Patel continues, “John Gruber over at Daring Fireball, the first to accurately predict today’s launch event, has confidentally chimed in with many more details. The button-less trackpad is indeed glass, and ‘is a button itself.'”
Another photo (from the side) and more details in the full article here.
John Gruber reports for Daring Fireball: It’s the real deal. Major visible changes from the previous MacBook Pros:
• A new iMac-style black border around the display.
• A single-piece aluminum frame. No more chintzy plastic trim along the edges and seams.
• No more physical latch.
• MacBook Air-style black keyboard.
Gruber reports, “And good news for those of you who’ve been bitching about Apple’s laptops having a single button: the single-button trackpad is gone. Which is to say there is no button at all. The new trackpad is similar to the Air’s, in that it is bigger and supports additional multi-touch gestures. But unlike the Air’s, the MacBook Pro’s new trackpad is made of glass, and is a button itself. You just press and it clicks. This is not like the current software option where you can enable ‘Tap to Click’ in the trackpad preferences, but instead a glass trackpad that acts as a physical button, with a click you can feel.”
Gruber reports, “The new MacBook Pro is not available with a matte-finish display. If you don’t like glossy, you can suck it.”
“I don’t know if the 17-inch revision is simply forthcoming, or whether it’s being phased out. My hunch is that it’s being phased out,” Gruber reports.
“The new regular MacBooks look like 13-inch versions of the new MacBook Pro… MacBook Pro prices will remain the same, at $1999 and $2499. Same for MacBook Airs: $1799 and $2499… [MacBooks will go for] $1299: 2.0 GHz, 2 GB memory, 160 GB disk [and] $1499: 2.4 GHz, 2 GB memory, 250 GB disk… the 2.1 GHz white MacBook remains in the new lineup, at a new price of $999 — technically breaking the $1000 barrier, but nowhere near the $800 price point some financial analysts have [predicted.]”
Much, much more in the full article here.
Does this have a microprocessor, or does it use the processing power of NVIDIA to do everything?
That would cut down cost tremendously. And it would be something that MSFT cannot do, since only Apple OS has processor-independence (PowerPC, x86, ARM).
Glossy only?????
Rattymouse
Another site says it has 800 but no FireWire 400.
A clicky track surface…
Where have I heard that before…?
It’s probably possible in theory — in the strictly academic sense of “possible” — to use a modern GPU as a CPU, but I can assure you that it is not practical. Performance would be lousy for a whole class of very important operations, and even porting OSX to a new, well-understood general-purpose architecture is a massive development effort.
By the way, back in the day Windows NT ran on everything from Alpha to Sparc, and Vista is still based around the old NT design, so Windows has been ported before.
There goes all the gain AAPL made yesterday.
” Gruber also claims that none of the new laptops will reach the rumored $899 price point — the part number spotted earlier seems to be associated with a new 24-inch LED Apple Cinema Display with DisplayPort according to MacRumors, not a low-end MacBook. To support this, Gruber says that the aluminum MacBooks will indeed be announced in $1,299 (2GHz, 2GB memory, 160GB disk) and $1,499 (2.4GHz, 2GB memory, 250GB disk) configs and will ship by the end of the week along with new 120GB HDD and 128GB SSD configurations of the MacBook Air. While CPU clocks will remain pretty much the same, all new MacBooks — regular, Pro, and Air — will feature the new NVIDIA 9400M GPU — the 15-inch MacBook Pro (the 17-inch will remain unchanged albeit with 4GB of memory and bigger 320GB disk) will feature a second 9600M GT GPU making it a true graphics powerhouse as previously speculated. Lastly, the current 2.1GHz white MacBook remains in the line-up but will be cut to $999.”
Sucks! But this makes sense, can you imagine the avalanche of MacBooks purchased in the last 30 days being returned if the new Aluminum MacBook was priced at $899?
That thing looks sweet!!!
But the missing option for a matte display sucks.
Man – I can not wait to get mine on order!
Way to go Steve!
Supposedly the new laptops are going to have “sick” battery life.
I just hope this means the euphemistic “sick” and not the kind of sick that I deal with on a daily basis.
Steve Jobs: “To woo over even more Windoze switchers, we are going to make them feel right at home with a laptop that gets only 2 hours per charge and rapidly degrades to less than a half hour within 6 months. And, we guarantee that you won’t be able to use it without plugging it in before the year anniversary!”
(loud applause from all those in attendance)
Glossy only?! These screens offer reflections and glare, so why is that seen as the better option?
I attempted to use two flat panel LCDs with gloss and while the color did pop, the additional “noise” from reflections was annoying and eventually they were replaced. It will be unfortunate if matte is not offered – hopefully Steve gives a little explanation and doesn’t “gloss over it” – :=)
I can see the logic of introducing a lower priced portable Mac with NO FIREWIRE in the region of $800, but to exclude FW from Macbooks in the $1000 to $15000 bracket is commercial suicide in my eyes.
I have also heard they are dropping the bottom model Macbook with the superdrive also!
What about price sensitive consumers that have 18 month old DV cameras and lots of footage of their children?? Are you seriously suggesting they purchase a newer generation of USB only camcorder to be able to manuipulate the footage in OSX applications, or worst still, pay $2000 for the priveledge of connecting the old camcorder to an Apple laptop?
I’m not overly enthused about this design, but I wasn’t thrilled with the aluminum iMac until I saw it in person. I was hoping the bezel would be smaller – it doesn’t appear to be.
AAPL will dive on the news of no $800 notebook.
SELL SELL SELL
Rattymouse and Mike R.,
The MacBook Pro is rumored to have Firewire 800 only with the MacBook having neither.
I can’t believe that Apple would maintain two separate MacBook lines as the article states – completely not in keeping with their past actions.
No matte display? Boo! Glossy screens look great in the dark but I’m sick of nasty UV light reflections on my MacBook.
Also, a display connector smaller than MicroDVI? WTF is the point of that?
Jay-Z,
The bezel is thinner than the current MacBook Pros. The black “bezel” is actually under the glass screen – look close (in honor of the grammatically incorrect “Think Different”).
Glossy only????? That could be a dealbreaker for me. I HATE HATE HATE glossy. Hello Ebay… 🙁
Have you seen this?!
The “best” of Steve Ballmer
OMG! How terriple is that!
This would suck if true:
– Glossy only
– 13″ without any FireWire at all
– No 17″
Observations:
– FireWire 800 is compatible to FireWire 400 with only a 400/800 cable required; the two 400/800 ports on the current MBPs share the same FireWire interface anyway, so it’s just the extra socket that’s removed with no loss of functionality (maybe even an upgrade to 800/1600/3200?)
– A video port other than fullsize DVI or mini DVI? Must be Display Port then — no more VGA at long last! DP is the future equivalent to what DVI has been: The professional video port as opposed to the consumer HDMI (to which it can still be adapted via cable).
MDN word: “years”: It would be years before I’d buy another MBP smaller than 17″ and with a glossy screen on top of it all! 🙁
I have a 17″ macbook pro and I really like it, hate to see it fazed out. Hopefully the demand for it stays high enough for them to leave it in the lineup.
@ Cubert
look close (in honor of the grammatically incorrect “Think Different”).
Think Different is grammatically correct. They are not saying “Think Differently”, just “Think Different”.
The screen looks like the HP touch screen. I wonder if the MacBook Pro’s screen is multi-touch…
Lots of trolls out today on this subject. Why not wait until the announcement before bitching about what the line will have or not have. Jeez!
Yes, I couldn’t deal with a 15″ after having a 17″ that would suck.