New mac books

Again you have to love the design of everything apple do!

no firewire on the macbooks = bad (for me)
better graphics card = good.

shiny screens = bad
incredibly beautiful object that i absolutely need in my life = good

Can't believe they've dropped the firewire.... that kills it for me unfortunately.

macbooks are such solid machines
had mine two years now and I dont believe it has crashed once
once you have used one, everything else just feels inferior

they're even better with linux on them ;-) [nb, mine is actually a macbook pro]

correct me if i'm wrong but isn't usb2.0 faster than firewire?

yep, i think it is a little bit. unfortunately i have an expensive audio mixer running on firewire, so i'd need something compatible. my laptops nice and quick anyway, but looks like i'm going to have to go for a macbook pro in the future if i decide to head down the apple route

also you can boot from an external firewire drive, but i don't think you can boot from a USB 2.0 drive?

this glass touchpad thing intrigues me. does it have a display underneath it?

also you can boot from an external firewire drive, but i don't think you can boot from a USB 2.0 drive?

this glass touchpad thing intrigues me. does it have a display underneath it?

I am guessing it is pressure sensitive or something, like the zooming on iphones by pinching the screen etc. Should be interesting to see one.

also you can boot from an external firewire drive, but i don't think you can boot from a USB 2.0 drive?

this glass touchpad thing intrigues me. does it have a display underneath it?

No display unfortunately, it's glass because it has capacitive rather than resistive touch technology.

USB 2.0 is supposed to run faster than Firewire 800 but most devices run faster with Firewire because i has more connections (8 pin rather than usb 4 pin). This means it can shove more data down at the same time.

My workmate just played video of one in action.

Some Brit designed it. These bloody Brits are taking over everything. Lucky their cash keeps me happy. Racists.

I am guessing it is pressure sensitive or something, like the zooming on iphones by pinching the screen etc. Should be interesting to see one.

looks like the capacitive bit of of a capacitive touchscreen (like an iPhone) but without the LCD display layer underneath. so in other words, it's exactly like an iPhone but you can't see what you're touching.

capacitive sensors detect the electrical disturbance caused by your fingers, so are more accurate than resistive touchscreens which detect pressure.

the lack of a button might be a pain in the arse, but Apple don't usually fuck with the user interface unless they've spent a lot of time perfecting it (UI is Apple's major selling point), so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I get a chance to try it.

No display unfortunately, it's glass because it has capacitive rather than resistive touch technology

resistive screens can be glass as well. in this case the touch pad is capacitive because resistive screens can't handle multitouch properly, capacitive are more accurate and responsive, and also Apple have shitloads of expertise (and no doubt suppliers) working with capacitive touchscreens (iPhone and iPod touch).

touchpad nerd

touchpad nerd

yeah it's my job to know about touchscreens. i even get quoted on the innernets and shit: http://www.macworld.com/article/135964/2008/10/storm.html

there's gonna be a lot of pissed off music producers who need new macbooks and own a heap of expensive firewire audio equipment.

So they're forced to buy the MBPro. Nice work Apple.

They look dull. their design is getting blander and blander, they look like something from PC world.
Ives has gone off the boil.

what, like one of these? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0557627675.1224022225@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccchadefgiekjefcflgceggdhhmdfhk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=390067&category_oid=

looks like the capacitive bit of of a capacitive touchscreen (like an iPhone) but without the LCD display layer underneath. so in other words, it's exactly like an iPhone but you can't see what you're touching.

capacitive sensors detect the electrical disturbance caused by your fingers, so are more accurate than resistive touchscreens which detect pressure.

the lack of a button might be a pain in the arse, but Apple don't usually fuck with the user interface unless they've spent a lot of time perfecting it (UI is Apple's major selling point), so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I get a chance to try it.

in the video on the apple website it shows that the whole pad is a button, not just tap, but click as well i think.

what, like one of these? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0557627675.1224022225@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccchadefgiekjefcflgceggdhhmdfhk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=390067&category_oid=

i see what you did there

Now that macs arei ntel chipped, you're not tied to apple hardware anymore. You can run OS X on PC hardware now. A lot cheaper, and you get to build it yourself, google hackintosh for more info..

in the video on the apple website it shows that the whole pad is a button, not just tap, but click as well i think.

ah yeah, i just watched the video. impressive. it seems clickable touch panels are the flavour of the month, after BlackBerry's new one came out last week (the blackberry people call their version the "poppledome").

i suddenly want to give apple money again, the bastards.

I could take your money instead, if that's any help.

I could take your money instead, if that's any help.

do i get to use four fingers at once?