MacBook Whoa!
As I impatiently await the shipment of my new MacBook Pro, I’ve been browsing the Apple discussion forums as a way of keeping up to date on new tidbits about the hardware. Since it’s a first-generation redesign of an Apple product, there’s always the chance of some catastrophic flaw I might need to look out for… 
Two issues dominate the discussions - the glossy screens on everything, and the lack of Firewire on the non-Pro MacBooks. You’d think Apple sent hit squads all over the world killing everyone’s dog.. geez.
I don’t have too much to say about the glossy screens. I imagine they will be just fine. At least one artist I know says that the glossy naysayers are full of shit. I trust his judgement in these matters.
As for the Firewire… I do find it a little sad to see Apple leave that out of the MacBooks, but it’s an old standard that, frankly, USB is dominating in the market. (Of course, technically, Firewire is still superior to USB2 for high bandwidth things like video.) It’s not too surprising to see them try to remove it. What gets me, though, is the utter outrage over it. Some of the arguments I understand - such as not wanting the bigger, heavier MacBook Pro but still needing Firewire for all their gear. Every now and then, though, I run across a comment that just seems… weak. Like this one:
I agree. I’m livid. I recently bought an Apogee Duet ($500), partly because of the sound quality, partly because it’s being promoted by Apple as highly compatible with its products. Now it won’t work on a next-gen MacBook because it’s FireWire (duh, pretty much any good audio interface is). Oh.
That’s compatibility? I don’t understand their plan–they think that anyone who does video or audio can afford a MBPro and they can just bump us all up there? If so, they’re extremely out of touch. In fact, they must not read the newspaper. Or watch the news.
So wait.. this guy spends $500 on a very special-purpose and professional piece of audio gear (apparently ignoring the newspapers and news himself), and then goes off on Apple about how not everyone like him can afford a MacBook Pro just for the Firewire? The cost difference between the top MacBook (no customizations) and the bottom MacBook Pro (again, nothing custom) is $400. That’s less than his fancy audio box cost him! Plus some reviews indicate that not only is the MBP’s screen obviously larger, but it’s higher quality to boot. The keyboard also apparently feels different between the two models. And, oh, you get an extra GPU, too…
Sure, it sucks if you expected the new MacBook to have Firewire (and I’d argue it wasn’t unreasonable to expect it), but on the other hand, there’s good arguments and bad arguments - and he shot himself in the foot with that one. That’s all I’m saying, I guess.
As for me… I ordered the lower-end MacBook Pro (mostly for the larger screen) with the SSD option - which was a very expensive upgrade and why I didn’t get the faster CPU. I have mixed feelings about this. I’m pretty excited with the idea of having an entirely solid-state laptop (ignoring the DVD drive which I almost never use anyway). This is not some small barely usable micro-sized thing, but a real, functional notebook that can be bumped and moved while running without fear of accidently crashing the hard drive. On the other hand, SSD is still pretty expensive for the size, and the size isn’t very big.
This is probably going to be the least “upgraded” new computer I’ve ever purchased. The CPU isn’t much faster than what I had in my old MBP (2.4 Ghz vs. 2.33), the HD will be smaller (128 GB vs. 150GB), and the new one is actually a hair heavier! The bus speed is WAY faster in the newer machines and I expect the SSD to be much faster as well (and also silent and more rugged), so it’s not a total backward step. I’ll also have 1GB more of RAM. Even so, it’s certainly not the usual direction I go with my upgrades. Perhaps this is a sign of what is to come as we hit the upper limits of clock speeds?