shiny new apples
Wednesday October 15, 2008
apple recently released new versions of the macbook and the macbook pro. of course, it will be old news by the time you read this. i don’t pretend to maintain a tech blog, unlike my brother’s. but having a brother who is extremely tech-savvy as well as the constant bombardment of advertising messages mean that it is impossible for me to not know these things.
apple’s designers seemed to have injected the genes of the imac into the new macbooks in terms of looks. to be perfectly honest, i am not really a fan of the black area bordering the display. seems to me like apple is trying to extend the palette of colours on their computers beyond the ones that they are already well-known for, such as white and silver. of course, this excludes the old emacs which i consider to be disasters.
performance-wise, i find nothing to jump for joy about on the software side, other than the features than os x users are already familiar with. there are definitely advances in terms of hardware. those looking at the macbook pro will have a 2.4 ghz, 2.58 ghz or 2.8 ghz option while those contemplating the macbook can choose either the 2 ghz or 2.4 ghz. as usual, ram is customizable, up to a maximum of 4 gb for both machines. same with the internal hard drives, which max out at 320 gb.
perhaps the most significant upgrade would have to be the inclusion of the new nvidia graphic cards. the macbook pro will hold the more powerful dedicated version of the nvidia graphic processors, together with the shared one that the macbook features.
on a personal note, i am starting to feel like i need (not want) a macbook pro. i am definitely not one of those gearheads who lust after every new technology in sight. thing is, i am beginning the feel the limitations of my 2 generations-old macbook, especially since the post-processing i do on my photography is very application-intensive and i like to run batch processes.
only problem now is that resources are not unlimited. since i am looking to replace my faithful but aging dslr end of the year, i might have to wait quite a while before i can even entertain the possibility of getting a shiny new apple. well, guess i have to make do with what i have at the moment.
the new macbook starts at S$2088 and the macbook pro at S$3188. both are available from apple online.
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