Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday unveiled “cleaner, simpler versions of the existing line of MacBooks and MacBook Pros, but [they] manage to do much more. (That’s a lesson that PC makers, who load each new generation of their machines with endless gimmicks and extras, never seem to learn.) At this rate of hacking down the product line, I suspect that within three years, the MacBook will be nothing more than a sheet of unbreakable glass,” Josh Quittner reports for Time Magazine.
Jobs also unveiled “How To Make A Laptop Stronger, Lighter and Cheaper By Carving It Out of A Block of Aluminum. This technological feat was pioneered on the earlier superlight MacBook Air and from this day forward (until we reach the Glass Singularity, I guess) will be standard fare on all Mac laptops. Jony Ive, design boss and Apple’s second-most important man, explained: “Rather than start with a thin piece of aluminum and add multiple parts for structure, we start with a thick piece of aluminum.” The frame, or ‘unibody’ that results after much drilling, cutting and buffing is so gorgeous that Jobs directed his Apple-uniformed cadre to hand out one per row and let the press and analysts kvell,” Quittner reports.
“Where PC makers wallow in confusion — some laptops include multiple types of mouse (touch pads and pointers), for instance — Apple has found a moment of Zen. The new MacBook has eliminated its single-button mouse altogether; every interaction now occurs via a glass touch pad. To select something, you simply push down on the glass pad. Or as Jobs said, “The whole trackpad is the button.” This generation of touch pads, by the way, lets users do a lot more with one hand. One finger directs the mouse, two fingers enlarge and reduce images, three fingers allow you to rapidly side scroll through documents, and swiping four fingers across the pad manages all the windows one has open on the screen,” Quittner reports.
“The new laptops also have new graphics cards that are supposed boost image-rendering speeds 500%,” Quittner reports. “That should be great for games.”
Full article here.
ah, zen! and I think I’m the first post too!
“…great for games.” Woot.
The “whole trackpad is a button” innovation is clever. I’m surprised that it was such as surprise to me, since it should have been expected. Apple did essentially the same thing with the Mighty Mouse, where the whole mouse body was the button.
Apple seems to hate buttons. For their next trick, they’ll find a way to get rid of the keyboard buttons. I suppose they already did that with the iPhone…
“Zen and The Art of Firewire Maintenance”
Wish you could patent the CNC stuff.
I have some specialized aluminum tools here at work done that way. Incredibly light and strong and sleek.
Can Dell make the switch? Not easily and Apple is almost a year past perfection with the Air.
I hope soon the glass trackpad could be swapped with the iPhone if desired. I don’t really think it will happen, but it would be cool and make everybody want to buy both the specs would have to be the same for the trackpad, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch across the board.
New video port, NO firewire, No Blu-ray, NO $1099 model. Graphics mean nothing if you can’t plug in your camera.
Jobs had the back rows of the auditorium disciplined for being slow to pass the unibody frame along at the rate he commanded.
They’ll be seen weeks from now, stumbling around like the zombie powder victims in ‘Serpent and the Rainbow’.
“I suspect that within three years, the MacBook will be nothing more than a sheet of unbreakable glass”
Zod, Ursa and Non from the Phantom Zone will not be eligible for purchase.
“Graphics mean nothing if you can’t plug in your camera.”
It’s long past time to get rid of your SCSI camera.
people who want to edit on macbooks should get with the program. A 13″ screen? Hello? Anybody home?
Buy a used MBP with 15″ screen off ebay, case closed.
Do you buy a minivan for its fantastic 0-60mph speeds?
No firewire is good, too many ppl would try to cut corners, then complain Apple sux because it couldnt handle their 4k edits and Maya renders.
Trust me, I went from a 13″ crt, to 15″, 17″, 21″, and now 23″,
and my eyes greatly thank me.
GUYS. You can buy a USB-to-FireWire adapter. You can buy a screen matte film. It’s really, really, really not a big a deal.
No Blu-Ray. How the hell are you supposed to create and distribute HD content? Going to email your parents a 25 GB version of that HD family vacation you just created to play on their new HDTV?
No FireWire. Won’t matter, because you can’t get the video off your HD camera into the MacBook anyway…
I guess Steve believes everyone should own a PS3 for Blu-Ray satisfaction.
Only the computer illiterate are “confused” by computers. More intelligent people call it choice. One is not forced into whatever Steve Jobs decides for you.
Sheep…
I wonder if Apple was planning to bring that trackpad button idea to the next iPhone only to get beaten by the BlackBerry Storm.
>GUYS. You can buy a USB-to-FireWire adapter.
They just don’t work with Macs… :0(
Philip: can you provide a link to a USB to Firewire adapter that works with OS X?
Let’s not forget the addition of LED displays that are brighter and more energy efficient, especially when battery life is a priority. The new graphics chip will definitely make games perform better on the MacBook. With the MacBook & MacBook Pro models having the same aluminum case, the models look more integrated.
5x as Snappy!
I can understand the dismay of no FW on the MacBooks. Apple has decided FW is a Pro-only conduit. All my current still and video cameras use FW. I haven’t shopped the latest crop of cameras. Are they still using FW or is there a switch to USB 2 happening there? Anyone actually know what camera manufacturers are doing now?
MacBook Zen! Of course!
Target Disk Mode to save my users’ files when things go south. Now what? I guess I’ll have to put their drives in a Tray Dock. Sigh.
@ Jane, you ignorant slut!
Re: “No Blu-Ray. How the hell are you supposed to create and distribute HD content? Going to email your parents a 25 GB version of that HD family vacation you just created to play on their new HDTV?
No FireWire. Won’t matter, because you can’t get the video off your HD camera into the MacBook anyway…
I guess Steve believes everyone should own a PS3 for Blu-Ray satisfaction.”
Get a Sony. Oh, but it going to cost over $4000. Hmm. But for a lot less, a Macbook Pro, an external Blu-Ray recorder and iMovie is…or for about the same amount, add Time Capsule, an iPhone, 24 monitor
Everyone really needs to settle down with this whole firewire disappearance. Yes I am upset also that it is gone on the macbook. But you have to look at what Apple is doing as a company. They are getting away from as many cables as possible. They want to get to wireless as they possibly can. Look TIME CAPSULE, MOBILE ME. I am sure they did their homework on how many macbook users, not pros, use their firewire port. yes us tech savy folks here do, I know my college kids with macbooks don’t.
Normally when interfaces are transitioned bridge devices are used to allow old hardware to talk to new interfaces. There are USB to ethernet adapters, USB to bluetooth adapters, USB to PATA/SATA adapters, etc. There is no reason not to have USB to Firewire adapters, at least for DV/Firewire to USB applications. There’s at least one on the market for $120 that is not Mac compatible. These guys should provide a Mac driver, or Apple should just supply their own adapter.
Here’s the thing with FireWire: the average MacBook user isn’t using it. Why? Because the average MacBook user isn’t doing HD editing. In fact, I think you’d be pretty stupid to have tried it on an old-gen MacBook. Or, for that matter, to be doing any sort of graphic manipulation (or any serious work whatsoever) on a 13″ screen. Have any of you who are complaining about this ever tried to use a MacBook to do any sort of graphic manipulation? Tried to use Dreamweaver on one? Anything like that? I have. It sucks.
Catch on to this one folks. FireWire is a PRO input. Most consumers have no idea what that funny looking plug next to the USB is. Trust me, I’ve had several people looking at my MBP ask me what it was. They just don’t use it. The MacBook Pro keeps the FireWire input, because it’s a pro machine. the MacBook ditched it because it’s a consumer machine. If you’re trying to do pro work on a consumer laptop, well…you’re kind of stupid.
And don’t give me gripes about a regular MacBook being more portable. Oh no, 1 extra pound! And a couple inches bigger! Oh no, what ever will we do?!
I have no problem lugging around my 5.6 lb MacBook Pro. If you’re going for ultra portability, buy a freakin MacBook Air, not a consumer MacBook.
I’m not saying Apple can do no wrong. I think they were unwise to not provide an option of an anti-glare film on the displays. I’m not a glossy screen hater, but I think choice is key. But I don’t think Apple was wrong to eliminate FireWire from the consumer MacBook. It cuts down on space, it cuts down on confusion to most consumers. Smart move Apple.
I used the Firewire/iMovie combo on much less powerful computers than a MacBook.
I am not necessarily surprised they ditched it. I’m surprised they didn’t have a work around ready to go for iMovie. Firewire is still pretty standard on most digital camcorders.
Most PC users have never experienced anything like the cool combination of iMovie and Firewire and when they see it, they are hooked.
Oh dear… I was wondering what all the uproar was about, since I found a number of USB to FireWire adapters on the Internet, but I never thought to check if they were Mac-compatible. Sorry about that, and I hope for the sake of anyone who uses FireWire extensively that they come out soon.
I think Apple wouldn’t have eliminated FireWire from its new MacBook line if most customers really needed it, so I understand the decision to remove the port to keep the design as simple and light and compact as possible, but of course they should also have available an adapter, just as they did when they eliminated the dial-up plug.
Still though, and again I’m really sorry for assuming that the Firewire-to-USB adapters were Mac-compatible, what’s all the fuss about the glossy screens? Surely matte covers aren’t Windows-only! And also, didn’t Jobs say during the presentation that the new backlit design reduced glare significantly? One might want to actually check out the new design before declaring that a matte option is absolutely necessary.
A lot of confusion here about firewire; not too many here know exactly how it pertains to DV and HD. So here goes.
MiniDV (standard-definition camcorder) and HDV (the HD camcorders with tape) must transfer their data in real time. Since it is a lot of data, they use FireWire. Both iMove HD and iMovie 08 support MiniDV, as well as HDV. They can capture, through FireWire, the footage and edit it natively.
HDV is rapidly being superseeded by AVCHD. These camcorders use built-in flash, internal HD, or SDHC (or MemoryStick for Sony) cards. They can squeeze about 1 hour of 1080p HD video on 8GB. These camcorders DON’T HAVE FireWire. They use USB2 to transfer data files. While iMovie HD cannot recognise these, iMovie 08 can import AVCHD content and edit it. No Mac software is capable of directly editing AVCHD, though (it’s inter-frame compression makes it difficult), so iMovie transcodes the material into AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec).
In other words, to work with HD, you don’t need FireWire anymore. In addition, after editing your HD video in iMovie 08, you can export it to Toast Titanium 9, which can author BluRay-formatted directory structure. Now, if your video is one hour or less, you will be able to burn it on an ordinary Dual-Layer DVD-R. No Blu-Ray needed either.
So, to get those home HD videos to play on grandma’s Blu-Ray player and 42″ HDTV, you need a Canon HF-100 (sub- $600) and MacBook.
@Crabs,
So after all that verbal diarrhea, you’re take is that we’re “kinda of stupid” and that Apple taking something away that people use everyday is a “smart move”.
Wow.
Yep, that’s a great line Josh Quittner writes in Time:
” I suspect that within three years, the MacBook will be nothing more than a sheet of unbreakable glass “
Well, Josh, in a sense we’re already there – and I ain’t joshin’ ya
iPhone
And, sorry to so many of you, but it doesn’t have firewire either
BC
Yeah blu ray is standard hi def now. but it really hasn’t caught on in the computer world, YET. I am not a kool aid drinker but I do believe apple has the niche to take the technology that is there and make it work, and make it work easily. I know it’s hard to swallow for photo/movie guys not to be able to use blu-ray to give to their customers, but I dont even think blu-ray is supported by apple yet. and yes blu ray licensing is expensive, sony pc/laptops only benefit cause sony owns the rights, all the other companies that offer, read all the other articles of why they aren’t making profit and growth, it’s they are putting work ton load in the back of a sedan rather build properly and put it on a truck.
Predrag,
If you’re simply going to use rationality and facts, how are the trolls going to be able to argue with you?
Now that Apple are finally shipping Macs without FireWire, maybe all the manufacturers of those Ethernet-to-FW adapters have a reason to have OSX drivers written. Until yesterday there was absolutely no point in them doing so because every shipping Mac with a fast enough Ethernet port also had FW included.
Give it a month before drivers start appearing, three until the main players (e.g. Belkin) have something out.
Griffin have no doubt fired up the design team already for a FW/USB cable – necessity being the mother of ….
Did they take away something that a large percentage of consumers who buy the MacBook use or even have any idea what it is? No.
My mom uses an old-gen MacBook, with the FireWire. She has no idea it even exists. A friend at work, who claims himself to be a “big Mac fan” (although he is kind of full of hot air) had no idea that his computer had FireWire, and when I tried to explain it to him, he didn’t get what I was saying.
Radio Shack doesn’t even sell FW to FW cords. They sell FW to mini-FW, but that’s it. No 400-400. No 400-800. No 800-800. I think that says for itself how much use the average consumer gets out of FireWire.
I’m not a huge fan of Radio Shack, but if a nerd haven like them doesn’t sell it, and your average Best Buy or Wal Mart, where your average consumers are buying their cords from, doesn’t sell them, then I think that’s a huge indication that FireWire is not vital (or even known) to most people who use the consumer MacBook.
MCCFR,
You’re right, maybe I should just flame away at all the trolls…
No, can’t do it; I gotta stick to the rationality and facts, I can’t fight it.
Right now, you can author Blu-Ray on Mac via Adobe’s Encore, or via Toast Titanium 9. These two can take HD content in QuickTime format and encode it into Blu-Ray directory structure. All you need to do is burn those files onto an optical disc. If you have 5 minutes or less (i.e. music video), you can burn this on a CD-R. If it is one hour or less, put it on a DVD-R DL. If it is more than one hour, you’ll need a Blu-Ray burner. Whichever type of disc you burn, though, any standard Blu-Ray set-top player will be able to play it back in full HD (if hooked up to a HD TV, of course).
The only limitation Mac OS X, and Macs that run it, currently have with respect to Blu-Ray is playback. There are no software players for Blu-Ray formatted discs (or folders). Also, it is not possible to play back encrypted Blu-ray content on Macs. I’m sure this will soon come, though.
OK, enough already!
I love my Mac. I love reading about Mac’s. I love looking at and using Mac’s. But enough.
Who runs this site? A group of ten-year-old’s hell bent on arguing with their friends about who’s Daddy’s car is better?
This is at least the twentieth article I’ve seen where the ‘commenter’ blows up and does the whole ‘Apple’s are OS Unlimited’ and ‘Our computer is better than yours routine’.
You sound like a ten-year-old.
Besides people who look at this site are Mac users; and mainly Mac geeks at that. We know all of these comments already. This was a <u>positive</u> article about Macs.
Have some class people. We enjoy our computers, plane and simple. We like sharing with others as to <u>why</u> we enjoy them and hope they will ‘see the light’. There is no reason to get into a contest. Especially when you are just talking to like minded individuals.
You folks should head to your local Best Buy and look at the camcorder section. Firewire has disappeared from almost all of the new camcorders except for the MiniDV ones. The MiniDV units are all on the lower to lowest end of what’s available. Before you jump on me about this, remember that we’re talking about CONSUMER video capture, not PROFESSIONAL. Apple is just dealing with the reality that, like Betamax and the Mac/OS X, the superior technology is not necessarily the one that gets adopted the most. Firewire is far superior to USB, but the low-margin PC industry has never really pushed it because USB chipsets were cheaper and more utilitarian for low-bandwidth devices like mice, keyboards and thumb drives. Lets face it, most people barely even tax the USB bus on their computers. As long as PRO users need laptops, Firewire 400/800/3200 will continue to live, but it will never overtake USB in the consumer world.
MW: because…Reality Bites
who care’s about glossy screens when he can handle CAD-programs and Photoshop with his fingers now on his new made-from-one-solid-brick laptop. apple focused on the most important elements of a pro-notebook. form follows function – why should it? big LOL @ apple. one switcher less.
@crabs,
🙁 Are you saying that I am not a Pro??? (Firewire is for pros)
Hey, I would charge for it if I could find a customer…..
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Oh, wait, you mean the other kind of pro…………. “Never Mind!!” LOL
My only concern is getting input from my camera to iMovie. It comes in directly being digitized by my camcorder. I can even take analog input, run it thru the camera and digitize it into iMovie.
Hmmm, now what……… OH wait, since I have a shiny new but older MacBook, I guess it will be a year or so before I get another laptop. So, take a breath, relax, enjoy the Apple stock rise before, ……. er Oct 21 drop, and the Jan drop.
I just got to get a stock account so I can ride this Apple puppy myself.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Predrag,
I’ve been dipping into MDN site for sometime now and I must congratulate you.
That was best answer(s) I’ve ever read on MDN. Ever.
Let the tumble weeds of ‘no firewire on MacBook’ fud, wisp away….
I really like the new macbook. It replaces the old Black MacBook and justifies the £900 price point. Now I wish I had not bought a refurb Black MacBook after it’s pervious revision this year….
Thanks again,
\ln
OMG. I think Time almost gets it about AAPL
GUYS. You can buy a USB-to-FireWire adapter. You can buy a screen matte film. It’s really, really, really not a big a deal. —Phillip
The USB to firewire adapter, assuming it exists and works as advertised, is useless for migrating your data from an old Mac to the new MacBook, useless for transferring audio and video data from firewire a/v peripherals to the computer, and useless for booting into target disk mode. In conclusion, the adapter is useless and Phillip is living in La-la Land.