Rumor: New MacBooks have shipped
Now that the iPod updates are out of the way, Apple fans are expecting laptop updates. The long-neglected MacBook Pro is most in need of a refresh, but I suspect that will be saved for January's Macworld Expo. Barron's is reporting this week that the MacBook is next, and that units have begun arriving at stores.Supposed features include a very thin case and and LED-backlit display. We don't know how true this is, of course, but we'll keep you posted.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Paul Ingham said 7:05AM on 9-16-2008
Wahoo, will have to replace my existing macbook with one of these.
They always release them when I have no money though!
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Matt Nevans said 9:21AM on 9-16-2008
Yeah, I Work for the apple store in Legacy Village. Last night we were doing Planograms securing all of the new Ipods on the table. They are the easiest things to take off, the back of them does not stick and the alrams kept going off. Besides the new macbooks, Honestly I can say Nothing has been posted on our back of house network through ARW. Therefore it might not be true but who knows.
SubGenius said 9:43AM on 9-16-2008
@Matt Nevans
Well, you are definitely not a genius at Legacy Village. Posting on public forums using what appears to be your real name about BOH operations? Not smart. Hey, I hear Microsoft is looking for some gurus.
Coasterjob said 10:05AM on 9-16-2008
@Matt Nevans
Yeah buddy, not smart.
n8manAfter said 1:04PM on 9-16-2008
Wow, you are in a really bad position here. You might want to see if some admin-type can remove your post. Apple made you agree to a NDA about Apple operations when you became employed.
Ouch.
Mohammed Mudassir Azeemi said 3:38PM on 9-16-2008
how much you are willing to sell your existing one? hehehe!?
Chris said 7:32AM on 9-16-2008
Here's hoping that should they surface before the end of October, that they'll be included in the UK student rebate deal.
At their current price with UK HE discount (£601) a new MacBook and an iPod nano for £615 sounds nice :-)
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James said 8:09AM on 9-16-2008
Could be even better, mate. They're rumoured to be launching them with an "aggressive entry-level price point" (as suggested by their warning to shareholders that profit margins would be less).
Chris said 8:12AM on 9-16-2008
Lets just hope that they choose not to cripple the entry-level model with one of those offensive combo drives! - You can buy a £349 notebook which comes with a frakin' DVD burner!
SubGenius said 9:47AM on 9-16-2008
Agreed! There is no excuse for having a comboDrive in a $1100 MacBook or in the $600 Mac mini.
Chris said 10:00AM on 9-16-2008
It's always been a pet peeve of mine, you pull your shiny Apple notebook out of your bag and then some muppet goes and asks: 'can you burn me off the DVD?' - and you have to explain, that, although you've just spent a LOT on a lovely new *plastic* notebook, it didn't come with a DVD burner or dedicated graphics... Then they ask you to look at their 3 year old Dell with a Radeon x1100 GPU and a DVD burner... Grrrr....
I'm just hoping they carry on with the black and Aluminium look... classy!
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Frank said 12:10PM on 9-16-2008
Someone at TUAW please block posts like this. Clearly a troll looking for hits on their own site. Account created today and this is the only post.
dwes said 4:19PM on 9-16-2008
That's cool. You know what'd be even cooler? If they started shipping all the products they announced last week.
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Draconix said 8:12AM on 9-16-2008
It would be nice if they solved the heat issues. its nice to have a quiet computer, but it sucks being scaulded by it.
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JimB said 8:21AM on 9-16-2008
Two thoughts: although John Gruber's October 14 date seems to have taken hold in the rumour community, if Barron's s correct and these are shipping to stores already... and today is a Tuesday... Might we see the yellow sticky on the Apple store soon? (Wishful thinking on my part?)
Second: I'm also somewhat concerned about the repeated phrase "aggressive entry level price point" and what Apple might be doing to get it there. While this new price point may be what they were talking about in the financial call a little while ago, Apple doesn't have a track record of cutting into their profit margins that greatly. So the question is, what might be coming out of the MacBook to bring it down in cost? Are we going to see an Air type of stripping out of connections (bye bye Firewire, etc)? Clinging to the combo drive? (Is there any way they could try to sell the MacBook without a drive to save on size and cost, or would that be too much like an Air?)
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SpinThis! said 12:19PM on 9-16-2008
TUAW needs to do some fact checking (as usual) before they post this crap. The Barron's article never confirmed any of those shipments were arriving at stores, only that they had *shipped*. Big difference. To put it another way, why would MacBooks be arriving at stores now but Apple sit on them a month (October 14, the rumored date) before release? That's a long time for employees to keep quiet about a new product—I just don't see that happening. Apple's been all about JIT delivery lately—it can barely keep stock or it announces and drop-ships them right from China.
Level 5 said 8:41AM on 9-16-2008
*futiley crosses fingers for a forward delete key and right mouse button*
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odaiwai said 9:50AM on 9-16-2008
You do know that fn-delete does a forward delete on MacBooks, and that a two-finger tap is the equivalent of a right-click?
Or are you just another troll?
SubGenius said 9:52AM on 9-16-2008
forward delete = function + delete
right mouse button = control + click or 2 fingers on trackpad + click