Apple MacBook Late 2009 Just a year ago, in October 2008, it looked like the white plastic-cased MacBook was headed for the scrap heap. Apple had just introduced a new and more expensive model sculpted out of aluminium, and although the plastic version was kept on sale to provide a less-expensive option for the budget-conscious education market, it was …
"There’s a mini DisplayPort for connecting the computer to a monitor, which means that you’ll need to buy a separate adaptor if you want to hook it up to a VGA, DVI or HDMI display."
Can you imagine the uproar and complaints you'd see if Dell or HP released a laptop that would only connect to their own proprietary monitors rather than standard ones? Why should I have to faff about buying and carrying round an adapter?
Apple are total and utter lock in control freaks.
No doubt the fanbois start on at me, but I would hazard that there are millions more VGA/DVI and HDMI TV owners out there than overpriced Apple monitor suckers. So why do it? This is about tie in.
I have a black MacBook, early 2008 (IIRC - last generation where the black one was available, anyway), and that didn't have a remote bundled with it either, so I suspect it's a while since it came with one, even while it had an IR port.
The 13" MacBook pro is just much better value. That £100 extra gets you:
* Smaller machine (in every dimension)
* 90g lighter
* Firewire 800 port
* SD Card slot
* backlit keyboard
* 250GB HD vs 160GB HD
* Maximum RAM of 8GB not 4GB
Hopefully the next version will bring back the firewire port /and/ lower the price.
A$1299? Too dear.
Na, mate, make it $1199, 4 gigs ram, 500 gig HD.
I got a better idea, sell the machine WITHOUT ram and WITHOUT a HD.
(What I really hate are 1 gig sodimms. You buy a laptop and invariably take them out and they sit there unused... I got a bout 4 of them... and nobody wants to buy 'em off you).
>> IIRC, Mini DisplayPort isn't proprietary, it's part of the latest DisplayPort spec.
Erm, so why has my shiny new Samsung Monitor got VGA+DVI and my Sony TV VGA+HDMI?
A quick check on Dabs.com. They currently sell 316 monitors, 119 LCD TV's and 273 projectors. Guess how many are DisplayPort? - four. I rest my case.
I would suggest that it is widely known that only major DisplayPort player/manufacturer currently is Apple.
Neill, DisplayPort is an industry standard developed under the auspices of Vesa, who did VGA and DVI.
Dell has DisplayPort machines and monitors, and three of the DisplayPort screens you mention on Dabs.com come from companies not called Apple: HP and Lenovo, to be precise. All of ATI's top-end graphics cards support DisplayPort, and many others do too.
Just because DisplayPort is not as popular as DVI, VGA or even HDMI doesn't make it proprietary.
FWIW, I think DisplayPort is largely unnecessary because of HDMI, but Vesa doesn't oversee HDMI, and wants to keep its oar in. Whether DisplayPort will take off in any meaningful sense remains to be seen.
I have only used my line in once or twice, but it is extremely handy to have. the only way to have sound in and out at once with one of these is by using USB.
I agree with sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD. Creative and Amazon sell RAM and HDDs cheaper than Apple, but at least it's better than in the past when if you got the one with the least RAM it had the slowest processor.
The new price undoubtedly has to do with the fall of the pound sterling. It's not worth as much as it used to be.
I do think it's a bit of a blunder to sell the Pro 13" for just 100 quid more. Then again, note how smart companies always make the "middle" level offering the most value for the money? It seems like this is what Apple is doing too. They really want you to spend those 100 extra, and they might very well succeed...
@Paul Durrant: actually for your extra £100 you get an SD slot, Firewire, a slightly smaller aluminium case, and a *smaller* hard drive.
The Pro model is actually the one with the 160Gb hard drive, and the standard Macbook has the 250Gb. Nothing sinister about this - it's just the Pro is a few months old, and they have nod adjusted the configuration as hard drives have got cheaper.
Similarly with the pricing. Apple tends to set local prices based on the exchange rate at the time a model is released, and then keep that price in local currency terms until they replace that model with a new one. Thus prices of products released at different times can have funny relationships to one another.
Well, well, you learn something new every day! Apparently it's usually referred to as a Mini-TOSlink connector. Clever! However the manual for the Late 2009 MacBook on the Apple website doesn't actually mention the optical capability, though it does say it can be used to connect to digital audio equipment.
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