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Analysis: What the MacBook Air is and what it isn't - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): ""
I liked this article.
By now most people have heard about the Apple battery recall. Well, yours truly is one of the unlucky ones. It'll be interesting to see how they handle this.
Apple has released their new MacBook. Not the MacBook Pro, mind, but the MacBook. The MacBook replaces Apple's iBook, and here's the interesting bit.
There's been speculation about why there's been no 12" MacBook Pro, and now I think we have the answer. Prior to today there were 12" and 14" models of the iBook, but now we have 13" models of the MacBook and that's it. The specs of the MacBook are so close to those of a MacBook Pro that it seems clear: the MacBook replaces both of the iBook models and the 12" PowerBook.
I like this move by Apple. I think it's helpful. They still retain a lower-end model of the MacBook, leaving room for the casual user at a reasonable price, but they add a little more uniformity.
I'm going to have to second this post on TUAW. Damien talks about how many people feel this event was a major letdown, not because of all the hype but because all of the products that were put out were, well, inferior. He makes good points about each product, and to be honest I really don't think any of it was worth a secret hush-hush event. The only thing they unveiled that was worth even a small press release was the Mac Mini, and that barely. Damien makes the point about the price increase for me. For that price, that machine should come with some killer speakers as well as the pvr software he talks about.
So tell me, was anyone really surprised that the Mac Minis were the next thing to go Intel? I know I tried to deny it, mostly on the grounds that this was supposed to be a secret press event so obviously it must be more than just the Mac Mini. But logic dictated that this would be the next thing up. Let's think about it. The PowerMacs will be last because they're so heavily used by graphic designers and without universal releases from Adobe graphic designers won't buy a mactel. So it's now between an iBook and a Mac Mini. Ah, but wait. Look at the specs - a Mac Mini really is an iBook in a different chassis - one that's cheaper to produce and has fewer heat issues. So now we have a new product and a preview of the specs we'll get on the next new product. Here's the real question - if prices went up on the Mac Mini, does that mean they'll go up on the iBooks too? The 15" MacBook Pro looks to be the same price as the 15" PowerBook G4 used to be. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Since I talked about some Photoshop benchmarks the other day I think it's only fair to talk about some real benchmarks that apply to the machines themselves rather than that specific software. Geekpatrol posted their benchmarks yesterday, and TUAW picked up on it. Rather than rewrite their findings, or redo their math, I'll just do some fancy quoting.
Fabienne at TUAW wrote
I took it upon myself to average their twenty benchmark results. Using Geek Patrol's benchmarking results, the MacBook Pro they used is 3.74 times faster than the PowerBook they tested. If I throw out the low results they received from Stdlib Allocate (which they note: "depends more on library performance than raw hardware performance"), the MacBook Pro is on average, 4.26 times faster than a PowerBook.
You'd be right to say, "but those are just benchmarks," but such high numbers make it very clear that the new MacBook Pro will be faster when running a native application. It doesn't mean all applications will suddenly be faster than any other machine ever anywhere, but it does mean a huge performance boost for Apple's laptops.
This comes as a shock to nobody, but Apple discontinued the 15" PowerBook G4s today. They pulled it from their site very quietly some time last night or this morning. I was just marveling at how this hadn't been done yesterday, actually, thinking that it showed lack of support for their fledgeling product line.
Quoth Dan at TUAW:
And regardless of Adobe's recent we-won't-ship-a-Universal-quite-yet announcement, even under Rosetta I imagine Photoshop on the MacBook Pro is faster than on the PowerBook G4.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with that. Jason O'Grady ran some benchmarks between a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz and a MacBook Pro 2.0GHz using Photoshop and the results don't surprise me too much. It seems that Photoshop's dependency upon Rosetta is causing the MacBook Pro's benchmarks to be almost twice as slow as the PowerBook's. Without universal releases from Adobe soon, Apple may be hard pressed to sell new desktops to graphic designers. Adobe posted an FAQ about mactel-native support, and John Nack posted highlights.