Any NEW Apple Laptops due out soon???

[Duff beer]

Got about £1000 to spend on a new laptop. As windows is wholly responsible for my rapidly greying hair ive decided to go for apple this time.

My question is, ive heard that (apart from the new MacBook Air) there is a new range of laptops due out soon. Does anyone know if this is true or should I go ahead and buy myself a shiny new MacBook?

If any windows users wanna recommend a machine then please do.
The main thing im looking for is battery life.


Thanks for your advice chaps.
DB

[hellsbrink]

Wouldn't be keen on a Macbook Air, doesn't even have a DVD drive and you know the battery will die a day after the warranty expires, making you pay a small fortune getting Apple to dismantle it and install a new battery. The chepest one starts at £1199, and I think that is too much.


For a grand you'll get a fair choice of 17", full size keyboard Wiindows laptops, whereas with a *regular* macbook you only get a 13" ( ) screen and the Macbook pro only gives you a 15" screen and a 120Gb hard disk for £1300. One comparison would be spending a grand on a HP DV9689EA at PC World which has the same processor, the same amount of memory but gives you a 17" screen, full size keyboard and a stonking great 500Gb hard disk.

Sorry, wouldn't buy a Mac, think they are overpriced.

[ORAC]

mac.blorge (and lots of others sites reporting from the last show): January 22, 2008 | New Macbook Pros with new touchpads, Penryn due in 3 weeks

With MacWorld comes all good things; okay, perhaps not the Macbook Air, or updates to the Apple’s wireless router, but know that good things spill forth from Cupertino in all arenas shortly after MacWorld. For those of you who aren’t completely enamored with the new Macbook Air, rumor has it that the real Clydesdales of the Apple portable lineup, the Macbook Pros, are due to receive the bigger trackpad (and yummy features) of the Air and an updated processor.

This latest rumor comes spilling forth from AppleInsider; purportedly, people “familiar” with this year’s product roadmap have leaked info that the next Macbook Pros, which will be released soon, will be equipped with the larger trackpad and an upgraded Penryn-based processor, pushing speeds of 2.6 Ghz and toting 6mb L2 cache.

If the new Macbooks, which are supposedly going to be released in a few weeks, were ready for MacWorld, why didn’t they make the release? Apparently an executive decision was made to push the release back a few weeks.What that says to me is that Apple didn’t want any of the thunder stolen from the Macbook Air; apparently Steve really is serious about the tiny little portable. He obviously didn’t know that the Air would come off as just hot air to the critics.

The good news is that the updated Macbooks should give a little boost to Apple’s outlook on 2008. If you’re considering getting a Macbook Pro, wait a while. Three weeks might not be a realistic date, but sometime this quarter you should definitely be seeing the new Macbook Pros roll out

[TightSlot]

For me. I'd suggest the following:

• Macbook 13 inch - White
• 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB memory
• 120GB hard drive1
• Double-layer SuperDrive

Then I'd double the memory to 2GB and add on a copy of iWork '08 bringing the total to £974.00. Spend the rest on an ipod and learn about podcasts and iTunes U.

For me it works because I an take this set up anywhere and it works in any hotel room, airport or anywhere, and usually without my having to get technical to do so. Skype runs like a dream and the iPod allows me to get educated while standing in immigration queues. I also get about 4 hours DVD watching in-flight off a full battery (more if the DVD is dumped onto and played from the Hard Drive).

Don't wait for a new laptop to come out - there is always a newer, faster, better one around the corner. Freeze your requirement, make it last 3 years then start again.

200 people will now explain to you why this is the wrong decision and laptop for you.

[Saab Dastard]

Don't wait for a new laptop to come out - there is always a newer, faster, better one around the corner. Freeze your requirement, make it last 3 years then start again.

An excellent piece of advice! And equally relevant to PC, Mac, desktop or laptop - or phone, PDA etc., etc. Unless you like standing on the sidelines, paralysed by indecision!

SD

[Duff beer]

thanks for the replies.

Tight Slot....quick question: Will all my MS Word and Excel documents come over onto iWork '08?

DB

[Eagle402]

Apple laptops

Hi,

I run an Apple MacBook and a PowerBook and would recommend any potential buyer to take out the extended warranty on any Apple laptop
as, whilst beautiful designs and intuitive to use, their reliability is very
much open to question and when your local Mac centre charges £50 to
give an estimate (if your machine is out of warranty) and the backlight
has failed and they want £500 for the part and labour you'll see my point!

If you do buy an Apple machine I wouldrecommend the Neo alternative to
MS Word/Excel etc. www.neooffice.org - it's free and very easy to use.

As an aside - I've just bought an Asus eee 701b laptop. 2 Gig memory but
you can buy the 4 Gig model. Around £210 - £220 including vat which is a great price for a marvellous piece of kit. Misco.co.uk sell then in the UK and also dabs.com.

Good luck,

mm

[Big Bad D]

If you are using MS Word and Excel routinely, and particularly if you use complex Excel spreadsheets, then I would recommend using MS Office for Mac. I tried iWork for a while and it can import to and export from Word and Excel formats, but the functionality is not the same and there is a risk with compatibility. iWork's Numbers is innovative, but it is not a spreadsheet application to replace Excel. I soon found it more productive to go back to MS Office for Mac.

MS Office 2008 for Mac has just been released and although not cheap, the Home and Student Edition (includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint) is much better value than previous versions. I am sure that thanks to the market presence of iWork, it has forced Microsoft to be more competitive.

[Background Noise]

Then I'd double the memory to 2GB and add on a copy of iWork '08 bringing the total to £974.00.

2Gb is well worth upgrading to, especially running parallels, but I wouldn't give apple £90 for it when you can get it elsewhere for £30.

[Duff beer]

BACKGROUND NOISE...

2Gb is well worth upgrading to, especially running parallels, but I wouldn't give apple £90 for it when you can get it elsewhere for £30

Who by and where would that done, also would that invalidate your warranty if you get non mac boffins to fit the extra RAM?

thanks.

[Background Noise]

Don't think so, the apple website has instructions on how to proceed. The imac manual describes it too. The new imacs are even easier I think.

Memory

Apple tech article

PS: I've done it with 2 of those SODIMMs in an imac and it works well - a noticeable improvement.

[scruggs]

Just taken delivery of the 2.2 GHz black MacBook, upgraded to 2GB of RAM and 250GB hard disk, and I LOVE it. Can't see me every going back to Windows again. Especially since I had the pleasure/miss-fortune of using Vista for a month, which I thought was awful!

The spec TightSlot recommends will be more than adequate!