Last Minute WWDC predictions?

[ImaNihilist]

lol the mac pro didnt get the new xeons. they just reduced the price of the entry level model a bit, the $5000 12-core model didn't change one bit. they might as well just EOL it at this point.

I have a feeling the MacPro, the old 13" and 15" MBP and iMac are all EOL.

It's pretty clear where Apple is going. The desktop, as a standalone device, is over. The margins are horrible, the sales decline quarter over quarter. With an HDMI port on the new MBP, it's pretty clear an Apple-branded TV/LFD is in the future.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple debuts a 4K display in January '13.

[Nabby]

The Macbook Pro is a sweet spot. Why in the world would I buy a 2199 15" Macbook Pro with a mechanical disk when the same price gets me a 15" with a Retina Display/8GB Ram/256G SSD?

[Steven P Jobs]

How many years do you think we are away from Apple just having a single line of notebooks? The 13" Pro is going to be EOL'd by the 13" Air in two years tops, retina displays will surely come to the Air line soon, and at that point it's really just a minor form factor difference that's separating the Pro and the Air.

[ImaNihilist]

How many years do you think we are away from Apple just having a single line of notebooks? The 13" Pro is going to be EOL'd by the 13" Air in two years tops, retina displays will surely come to the Air line soon, and at that point it's really just a minor form factor difference that's separating the Pro and the Air.

One. They may call them two different things, but I wouldn't be surprised if a year from now they just get rid of the Pro/Air labels and just have 11", 13" and 15" MacBooks.

We're basically already there. There are only three major differences between the 13" Air and the new 15" Pro.

1. Retina
2. Dedicated GPU
3. SDXC

That's pretty much it. It's unlikely we'll see a dedicated GPU in the Air any time soon, unless there's a breakthrough in thermals in that space. Once an Intel IGP can drive a 2560x1440 display without issue we'll see Retina in the MBA.

The 15" form factor just gives you more space, mostly in the "sides" of the keyboard and the resulting larger perimeter. I guess the question is can they ever make the MBP thin enough so that it looks like the Air? I'm guessing probably not, but who knows.

I would be surprised if Apple is even making desktops at all in a few years. Honestly. I could see an Apple that just sells a single like of notebook computers, a display or two, some external accessories and the iDevices. We've already got this: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/ec...sschassis.html

[Timman_24]

Good lord! I was excited until I saw the price, 2200 dollars? Are you guys really ordering that thing?

I've been holding out for an updated iMac or Mac Mini, but it seems pointless now. I will probably just get the 1200 dollar Macbook Pro.

They updated the non-retina line with Ivy Bridge correct?

[ImaNihilist]

I'm going to stay away from Retina as my main machine until all apps are updated. The thing about Retina, which I realized with the iPad 2, is that you don't realize has bad normal displays are until you see what crisp text looks like on a high DPI display. You think, "How much of a difference does it really make?" Then you look at a pixel-doubled application and a native application side by side and the pixel doubled one looks HORRIBLE.

[Timman_24]

How much of performance difference would you guys say there is between the new MacBook Air vs the Pro. The Pro obviously has a faster processor, but the Air comes standard with an SSD. I'll mostly be programming, compiling, light graphics design (2D, textures, and light 3D, which could be done my PC), along with normal computational tasks such as web browsing. No gaming.

I'm looking at the 13in Air 128GB vs the 13in Pro base Pro. Both will be upgraded to 8GB Ram.

[Steven P Jobs]

Get the Air. SSD makes way more difference than the slightly faster CPU of the Pro, and 1440x900 is a much nicer screen resolution than 1280x800.

Regarding the Retina MBP, it's kind of like the early MBAs in that it's blatantly obvious computing is headed in this direction, but it's maybe not ready for primetime yet. The pricing is actually somewhat reasonable though considering the specs - if you put a 256GB SSD in the 15" non-Retina Pro, it's actually more expensive. 2200+Warranty is more than I want to spend on a laptop these days, but it's clearly the most advanced laptop on the market today.

The BTO prices on the Retina MBP are truly outrageous though. They can get away with charging them because the entire computer is basically non-upgradeable just like the Air, but that doesn't make the price Apple charges for RAM and SSD upgrades any less silly.

[James]

I'm looking at the 13in Air 128GB vs the 13in Pro base Pro. Both will be upgraded to 8GB Ram.

Well the Air won't, unless you pay for it up front.

That's the one downside to the new 15" r-MBP. Everything is soldered on-board. No more upgrading ram later as it gets cheaper. They have taken the Air's design and made it larger for a 15" form factor. Everything in integrated except for the mSATA (but not standard mSATA mind you!) SSD.

My one take away from the announcement was re: iOS6.

Apple is squarely focused on location based services, more than ever. However, they have done nothing to increase battery life. Part of the announcement is "crowd-sourced realtime traffic updates". In my mind that doesn't mean people reporting accidents, etc. That means that as part of using their device, you agree to let Apple use your GPS 24/7 to be a data point in tracking how fast traffic moves on a given road.

[Timman_24]

I think I'm set on the MBP 13" base model with upgraded RAM. I was thinking about doing the 128GB SSD, but decided the extra speed isnt worth the 180 dollars for me. I'm mainly concerned with processing power. The screen resolution doesn't matter much to me because I will be using an external monitor most of the time. I'm able to still get the educational discount, so that is 100 bucks off the MBP plus a 100 dollar apple gift card.

[Steven P Jobs]

^ $180 extra is quite a bit of change, but it gets you an SSD, a better (non-glossy!) screen, and superior portability.

edit: sorry, i thought the decision was between base model 13" pro and base model 13" air. those two cost the same. unless you REALLY REALLY need the marginally faster CPU, there's absolutely no reason not to go with the air. It's better in every tangible way as long as you can live with 128GB of storage. The difference between the Air's i5 and the Pro's i5 are not as big as the GHz numbers make it look. For 99% of users, the lowest possible CPU Apple puts into its products is the most reasonable choice.


Here's an update on the Mac Pro: http://www.macworld.com/article/1167..._for_2013.html
Another 12-18 months to replace the 2 year old Mac Pro that is outperformed by the iMac in most situations? Seems like quite a blunder. Either support pro users or don't, but these mixed signals are silly.

[ImaNihilist]

I have a 13" Pro and it the HDD has become the bane of my existence. I have to sit around and wait when it loads now.

It wasn't so bad when the HDD was empty, but I got a larger and larger drive and put more and more crap on it. It's horrible now. I have a 1TB drive about 50% full and it runs like crap. OS X does a lot of indexing and reindexing and the machine is completely bogged down when it starts.

I'm going to move to an Air and just keep all my video media to an external drive.

[Nabby]

I have a 13" Pro and it the HDD has become the bane of my existence. I have to sit around and wait when it loads now.

It wasn't so bad when the HDD was empty, but I got a larger and larger drive and put more and more crap on it. It's horrible now. I have a 1TB drive about 50% full and it runs like crap. OS X does a lot of indexing and reindexing and the machine is completely bogged down when it starts.

I'm going to move to an Air and just keep all my video media to an external drive.

That is the way to go. I have a previous gen MacBook pro and dropped and ssd in it. It's blazing fast compared to the old mechanical drive. Do I want a new retina MacBook pro? You bet your *** I do but I would had a hard time selling that to my boss. We did order one for an employee and I'll be able to get my hands on it for a bit when it comes in..

[Timman_24]

I ordered the 13" MacBook Pro with the 2.5Ghz i5 and 8GB of ram. I will probably add an SSD later, but I can't justify it at the moment.

[Nabby]

I ordered the 13" MacBook Pro with the 2.5Ghz i5 and 8GB of ram. I will probably add an SSD later, but I can't justify it at the moment.

The only thing that I don't like about the Macbook Pro 13" is the resolution of the display 1280 by 800 just doesn't cut it for me.

I just noticed that Apple made their Ram upgrade prices somewhat reasonable, what is this?