More on the MacBook Pro

After the crowds thinned, I went back through the Apple booth and touched all of the things that I'm interested in. In particular, I spent some time with the "big" new hardware announcement, the MacBook Pro. While I noted previously that it is slightly thinner than my PowerBook, I didn't realize that the new machine is a bit wider as well (15.2" screen vs. 15.4" on the new 'book). I don't think it is enough of a difference to make the new machine incompatible with laptop bags and such.

The quality if the integrated iSight looks pretty good -- which is amazing, because the display isn't any thicker.

I noticed that the display model got quite warm when the processor was run at maximum performance. It felt even warmer than my PowerBook gets when it is cooking, which is a bad thing (because my PowerBook is too hot to hold when it is running at full steam).

I think that they moved the AirPort antenna to underneath the display (instead of on the side). You can tell that they are using a different type of material there (based on the picture that I took), which is quite similar to the sides of my display where the AirPort antenna is. The Apple person that I was grilling wasn't aware of this change, or if it affects wireless reception.

The new MacBook Pro doesn't have an S-Video connector, and the Apple guy didn't know if there was a way to go from DVI to S-Video.

There is no tether for the remote -- it doesn't stick to the case, nor can it be stored internally in the unit.

There is still no word on battery life, but Jade over at ArsTechnica has a wild-assed-guess (WAG) about what it might be.

The new MagSafe power connector does have a light on it, that turns amber when charging and green when fully charged. It isn't as nice as the "ring of power" on the current Apple PowerBooks, however.

The one really surprising thing that I learned is that Apple is still selling all of the PowerBook G4's (including the 15" one). While the MacBook is supposed to replace the PowerBook line, the replacement won't be immediate. This is probably because all of the applications that professionals use aren't native to Intel yet. And the new MacBook's can't run OS 9 classic apps.

Finally, contrary to what I have read elsewhere, the latch for the display has not been re-designed on the MacBook Pro. Instead, it has been duplicated. There are two latches, with the exact same design as on my PowerBook, one on each side of the iSight. This is probably a hack, because they need for the latch to be center-mounted, but the iSight was in the way. So, they hit right and left of center instead. You can see one of the latches on the left-hand side of this picture.

When I was at the iMac booth, I tried to grill the technical Apple guy about if they are using EFI or some sort of crazy port of OpenFirmware to Intel, but the dude couldn't say (note, not wouldn't, but couldn't). I also made a pest of myself asking if there would be a motherboard swap upgrade, for those of us who a month and a half ago bought a fast machine, which has now been replaced with something that is 2-3X faster. I was basically told that such an upgrade program isn't likely to happen.

-Andy.

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