More second-tier reporting here.
While most Mac fans probably can get such news elsewhere, second-tier reporting here does help some of the fellows who don’t read other Mac blogs to get their Mac news, so yeah I will continue the second-tier Mac news reporting. 😛
So guys, any freezing problems for you people?
As this article reports, and I have been saying the same thing for the past 2 years, the Seagate laptop HDDs that are used in the first generation MacBooks and several other earlier Apple laptops/desktops are problem-ridden and generally die despite careful use.
While the article singles out Apple, the fact is that other manufacturers are using the same Seagate HDDs as well, and have experienced similar failures. Seagate refuses to acknowledge the problem, and as such Apple probably has no obligation to issue a mass product recall.
Do note that these drives are generally found only on the first generation MacBooks, which means if yours is a second, third, or lucky you, fourth generation MacBook, they are likely to come equipped with a Fujitsu or a Toshiba HDD instead.
If you own a MacBook or any other Apple laptop, it’s a good idea to check your HDD manufacturer, and do frequent backups. Even better, buy a replacement HDD from Hitachi or Toshiba, you’ll get much more capacity than the original 60GBs on the first generation MacBook, and changing the HDD on the MacBook doesn’t void your warranty as well.
As if Apple is too ashamed to announce it, but they finally released Santa Rosa MacBooks, easily half a year after everyone else. Sometimes I am really amused by some of the decisions Apple makes.
So what’s the big deal about these new MacBooks? X3100 integrated graphics, which is Intel’s sad excuse for a “near-gaming-able graphics card”. Not a very funny joke. Like I care.
On the good side, at least you can now put 4 GB of ram inside your MacBooks and run them almost as fast as the fastest Windows Vista laptops (the MacBook Pros) in the world.
I am very very excited about this piece of news.
According to 9to5Mac, the same guys whom, with the help of their chinese spies, revealed to the world the shape of the new iPod Nano and the presence of the iPod Touch way before everyone else, Apple is preparing to ship brand new MacBooks in the 4th quarter of 2007, which starts in less than ten days!
The great points about these new MacBooks?
1. Aluminum Enclosure instead of the current Polycarbonate ones
2. 2 colours, Silver and Anodized Black Aluminum (Black Aluminum!!! This thing is going to be really beautiful!)
3. Priced AGGRESSIVELY (Which may mean even cheaper prices than today!!!)
4. Similar design to the current one, but with a smaller bezel and thus a smaller footprint
5. Considerably Thinner!!!
6. Lighter!!!
7. Special Touchpads!!!! (Multi Touch functions? Backlit Touchpads?)
As you can see, I have every single right to be damn hell excited about this piece of news. And according to 9to5Mac, their sources have already seen the MacBooks in physical form, which will indicate that production is already in progress, and that their sources are probably people working in the china factories.
The even more interesting thing here is, upon looking up some archives, there was a similar post by Cruchgear.com a few months back! They believed that the MacBooks are due for October. They were ready to ship them back in June together with Leopard, but now that Leopard is delayed, the MacBooks are delayed too.
So how accurate do I think this piece of news is? Extremely accurate. Looking by the products they have released in the past few months, it’s extremely clear that Apple is going to transit into using more aluminum for their production, as evident by the latest iPods and iMacs. And one does get the feeling that the iMac, the coming MacBooks and the iWork and iLife suites were actually planned to be released together with Leopard but did not managed to do so due to the delay of Leopard. iWork and iLife had to be released earlier, and to do that some code/library frameworks from Leopard actually has to be transferred into Tiger during OS X updates installation for them to actually work. Furthermore, the design focus of the recent iMac and iPod updates do prove that these new Aluminum MacBooks are coming. Remember the main points that Steve Jobs used to praise the new iPod Classics and the new iMacs (the MacBooks, iMacs, iPod always have the privilege of sharing the same design focus ever since the iMac G5 era)? “all-Aluminium construction” (okay for the iMac it was aluminum and glass, technically, but I guess you can agree with me that the glass was there to make the screen look glossy) and “they are thinner!”. Furthermore, the 2 colours of the iPod Classic fully explains the Silver and Anodized Black Aluminum colours of the new MacBooks!
Ahhh…. I can’t wait. This is so much more exciting than the iPod Touch. I totally forgot about that piece of iPhone wannabe crap already!
I should expect some of my friends will not be too pleased about the update since they have just purchased their MacBooks recently, but well, guess what? I think many girls will snap at the chance to buy what is possibly the last batch of lovely white polycarbonate MacBooks from Apple!
Life is great. And if you do remember, the first 30 years were really just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.
Macrumors reported that the new MacBook Pros widely speculated to be available at WWDC (June 11th), will actually be launched earlier this coming Tuesday.
If you ask me, I’m putting my money on the MBPs coming out this Tuesday. Don’t know why but I just have that feeling. Hehz.
Yesterday someone came up to me and asked, “Eh! You are the MacBook Club President right?” Wao. I never knew that MacNUS had an alternative name. Haha crap.
However, this little incident also proved how fast the MacBook name caught up with people. Despite so many Mac fans feeling pissed when Steve Jobs announced the “MacBook Pro” and subsequently “MacBook” names for the new Intel-based Mac laptops, apparently the MacBook names caught on so well with people that they will remember the MacBook name over all previous names.
Seriously speaking though, the MacBook name is definitely easier for non-Mac users to recognise than the old iBook and PowerBook names. It’s a “Mac” “Notebook”, thus “MacBook”. Simple and nice. I personally got used to the MacBook name just one or two months after the MacBook Pro was released, and it’s actually awkward for me to use, or even remember the iBook and PowerBook names these days.