Should I buy an Apple laptop?

Another for dual monitors here. I've been using my 15" MBP with a 23" Samsung LCD since August, and it's fantastic.

I've got a G4 and my only problem with it is that it can't do web video (it used to, but the codecs everyone's using now are too high bit-rate). If you're not doing anything too heavy duty it's just fine.

On the subject of monitors, Costco have some truly great 24" monitors right now for $140, we just got a bunch of them for the office and I am continually impressed by how good they are.

What brand?

I already have a 20" monitor for my Dell (which I am not giving up btw, this is in addition to my other desktop computer) so if I went that route, I'd get a KVM switch and share the monitor. I use dual monitors at work and love it.

My main concern is machine power per dollar; if I am shelling out more than $2K for a computer, I want the most powerful processor I can get for the money. There is no way in hell I'm paying Mac Pro prices and the performance benchmarks I'm seeing on the quad core iMac vs the dual core MacBook Pro are making me lean very heavily towards the iMac; if I'm getting the same processor either way, that MIGHT push me towards Macbook Pro as long as there aren't also memory issues to contend with. Like I said earlier, portability is not my main concern.

you get more flexibility for upgrades with a pro too, but if you don't care about that for now then yeah, imac.

But what upgrades though? Its not going to be a gaming (LOL its a Mac) rig so graphics card is out. Most audio stuff is USB or firewire nowadays unless you want to pay big bucks. There's extra drive bays but Firewire 800 is plenty fast. Dual monitors, you can have it.

I can't see expandability making much of an argument.

Ed, what brand were the Costco monitors?

so lol some of my bitching may be moot anyway since I'm not 100% sure that the 27" iMac will fit in the desk area I've prepared for it

srsly if they put that fuck-off awesome processor in the 21-inch iMac, that would be perfect

yeah, like i say, i don't know much about what you might put in a home studio machine these days. if everything is usb or firefire then don't worry about it.

competition comin' up now
load up aim firefire pow

Can they update the Macbook Pro sometime soon, please? I want a quad core laptop with like... something else my current one doesn't have, maybe a blu-ray drive?

hah hah, I implied Apple will install a blu-ray drive in one of their systems

Mac Pro and MB Pro updates are probably right around the corner.

I'm tempted to go back to a Mac Pro if edu pricing puts them roughly even w/ the big iMac at update time.

Mr Steve thinks blu-ray is almost as bad as flash.

I really hope around the corner means this month

what the fuck, are my posts not showing up on this thread?

Sorry, I din't notice your question. I think they were Asus, however ask me again next week when I back in the office.

when's the most likely date for update mb pros? I'm in the market

any...second....now

or a few months.

I'd like one as well. Get rid of the optical drive alltogether. There's a company that will replace it with another hard-drive but it's a battery hog and heat generator. I basically would like a macbook air pro.

My friend estimates March-ish, supposedly other companies (Dell) are getting the new chips from Intel in March-April timeframe, so it'd make sense if Apple gets them a little early as per usual.

march wd be perfect *fingers crossed*

no blu rays tho right? ;_;

u know u can just buy an external bluray drive

wait, can u? how do you play it through the Mac?

Yeah, i don't think there is any good player that can actually output Blu-ray - the full works, surround audio too - on Mac OS X. Even VLC is in trouble, I think.

I want legit HDMI-out too and not just DVI. The newer laptops probably have this, but mine doesn't, and my tv doesn't play well with the laptop and I end up with weird scaling.

http://reviews.cnet.com/blu-ray-drives/lacie-d2-external-blu/4505-6512_7-32330473.html

but ya, dont know if u can play them

get a 13" macbook pro and a 21"+ Dell monitor. Once you go dual monitor, you never go back, you get the benefit of big screen(s) at home and having a laptop. win-win.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, February 2, 2010 12:21 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM --- this is what i want.

I've got a 17" MBP (no external, my 20" ACD isn't large enough to bother) and I don't like it. I thought I could live with my iTunes directory on a separate HD, but since that runs video from there too it's kind of a pain. Maybe when I can stick a 2TB disc in my laptop it would be okay, but for right now the space limitations and having to use an external aren't worth it for me.

I don't like it being my only computer, that is. The MBP itself has been fantastic.

yeah, suck it suckstsky!

totally gonna get a PS3 soon anyway so it's academic

this thing gruber linked works so much better on my macbook than any flash ;_;
http://jilion.com/sublime/video

it's jerky and maxes out one of my cores on my macbook ;_;

you can enter the youtube html5 beta here if you use safari or chrome:

http://www.youtube.com/html5

my cpu temps stay below 60 (80+ for flash) but the browsing bar doesn't always keep up with the video. also a lot fewer jerks/freezes in the video

oooh dyao - i will try that link on my aging G4 when i get home

i should just say "aged" at this point

dog years are x7.. my g4 is what, 5 years old at this point so we could say that computer years are.. x14?

I kinda wish I hadn't sold my 12" powerbook...

Yeah I have a friend who's a hardcore 12" PB loyalist.

What's wrong with the 13" MBP?

nothing! the 13" is great. just nostalgic, that's all.

meanwhile, my 15" MBP unibody seems to be a victim of a pretty common screen flickering problem. no idea what's causing it but I think I will buy applecare in case there's some big nVidia reveal later down the road.

how do u kno if the yt vid ur watching is displaying in html5 and not flash?

widgets look a little bit different and http://www.youtube.com/html5 gives you the chance to leave (rather than join) the html5 beta

I've opted in but it says it doesn't cover all vids; I want to know when it is and isn't in effect so I can guage difference in performance seems dumb tht it doesn't say somewhere on a vids page tht it's showing w/html5

ah right. dunno. the widgets do look subtly different i think.

d'oh! there's a little pause before the vid starts and it says html5 right in the centre

it is SOME BULLSHIT that I can't just easily redownload all of the itunes content I've paid for in one click

any...second....now

or a few months.

I'd like one as well. Get rid of the optical drive alltogether. There's a company that will replace it with another hard-drive but it's a battery hog and heat generator. I basically would like a macbook air pro.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, February 2, 2010 1:26 PM (Yesterday)

OTM. I wonder how long it'll be before Apple stops shipping all their laptops with optical drives. It might take a while, but it'll happen.

*without, obv

http://i50.tinypic.com/2mpfmzc.gif