New MacBook Family Redefines Notebook Design

Industry’s Greenest Notebooks

CUPERTINO, California—October 14, 2008—Apple® today unveiled an all new MacBook® family that redefines notebook design, and at the same time dramatically lowers the entry price for advanced notebook features including all-metal enclosures and pro-performance notebook graphics by $700 to make them far more affordable. The new MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro both have a precision unibody enclosure crafted from a single block of aluminum, resulting in thinner, more durable and incredibly beautiful designs. In addition, every member of the new MacBook family includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics, brilliant instant-on LED-backlit displays and new large glass Multi-Touch™ trackpads that offer almost 40 percent more tracking area and support more Multi-Touch gestures. The entire new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0, EPEAT Gold and RoHS environmental standards, and leads the industry in the elimination of toxic chemicals by containing no brominated flame retardants, using only PVC-free internal cables and components, and using energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass.

“Apple has invented a whole new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum. And, just as important, they are the industry’s greenest notebooks,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new MacBooks offer incredible features our users will love —like their stunning all-metal design, great 3D graphics and LED backlit displays—at prices up to $700 less than before.”

“Traditionally notebooks are made from multiple parts. With the new MacBook, we’ve replaced all of those parts with just one part—the unibody,” said Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of Industrial Design. “The MacBook’s unibody enclosure is made from a single block of aluminum, making the new MacBook fundamentally thinner, stronger and more robust with a fit and finish that we’ve never even dreamed of before.”

The new MacBook line features the powerful new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, a revolutionary new 3D integrated graphics processor that features 16 parallel processing cores and delivers up to five times the 3D graphics performance as previous MacBook and MacBook Air™ designs. Apple has worked together with NVIDIA on this groundbreaking graphics processor and is the first to bring it to market in the new MacBook family.

The new smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad on the MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro gives users almost 40 percent more tracking area than before, making it even easier to use Multi-Touch gestures like pinch, rotate and swipe. New gestures allow users to activate Exposé® or switch between applications at the touch of a fingertip. The entire trackpad surface is also a button, allowing users to both track and click virtually anywhere on the trackpad. Users can easily enable multiple virtual buttons in software, such as right-clicking.

Every member of the new MacBook family features an LED-backlit display for brilliant instant-on performance that uses up to 30 percent less energy than its predecessor and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights. The ultra-thin displays provide crisp images and vivid colors which are ideal for viewing photos and movies, and the edge-to-edge cover glass creates a smooth, seamless surface. Every display in the new MacBook line uses completely arsenic-free glass.

The new MacBook delivers the top three features that MacBook customers have told us they want in a new MacBook—an all metal enclosure, high performance 3D graphics and LED-backlit displays—at an entry price that is $700 less than the $1,999 price of the MacBook Pro. At only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 4.5 pounds, the new 13-inch full featured aluminum MacBook is an incredibly compact and durable notebook starting at just $1,299. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, MacBook delivers outstanding 3D game play on a consumer notebook, with up to five times faster graphics performance than the previous generation. The new MacBook is available in two models: the 2.0 GHz MacBook with a 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive, and the 2.4 GHz MacBook with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a backlit keyboard.

The powerful new 15-inch MacBook Pro at only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 5.5 pounds offers ultimate performance and extensive expansion features in a remarkably portable design. Starting at $1,999, the MacBook Pro uses the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available, running up to 2.8 GHz, and a new graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. The new MacBook Pro is available in two models: a 2.4 GHz model with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a 2.53 GHz model with a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive.

Today Apple also updated MacBook Air and the 17-inch MacBook Pro. MacBook Air, measuring only 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, 0.76-inches at its maximum height and weighing just three pounds, now includes new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a faster architecture to provide robust support for 3D games and enhanced performance. Starting at $1,799, MacBook Air is available with a 120GB 4200 rpm hard drive, a 50 percent increase from the previous generation, or a new 128GB solid state drive. The updated 17-inch MacBook Pro keeps its original aluminum design, and now comes standard with a high resolution 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display and a larger 320GB hard drive or an optional 128GB solid state drive.

Setting a new standard for environmentally friendly notebooks, every model of the new MacBook family achieves EPEAT Gold status.* Each MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated flame retardants and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-free.

The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air include a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight® video camera, mic and speakers in an elegant, thin aluminum and glass enclosure. Part of the next-generation DisplayPort industry standard, the new Mini DisplayPort delivers a pure digital signal that can drive up to a 30-inch widescreen display. The Mini DisplayPort is ultra-compact at just 10 percent the size of a full DVI connector, perfect for the sleek design of the new MacBook family. Adapters are available for using the MacBook’s Mini DisplayPort with older generation VGA, DVI/HDMI and Dual-Link DVI displays.

Labels: apple, macbook, macbook air, macbook pro

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 10/14/2008 02:52:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  RUMOR: Apple’s next-gen MacBook to be two-tone: aluminum and polycarbonate "MacBooks will have black (perhaps other colors - we have only heard black) plastic outer shells. The same type of plastic that is on the backside of an iMac," Cleve Nettles reports for 9 to 5 Mac.

"The inside shell, around the keyboard and the screen will be aluminum and that one piece structure will be the skeleton of the laptop," Nettles reports.

"It will be two-tone," Nettles reports. "Think if a iMac and a MacBook Air had offspring. Thinner than its predecessor. They are going to sell a lot of these." Via MacDailyNews .

Labels: apple, macbook, rumors

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 10/10/2008 02:37:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Apple "Notebook" event is on, October 14th!

Apple has sent out invitations for a special event on October 14, 2008 @ 10 AM PST. The above invite gives you a hint what the special even is about ;)

Labels: apple, macbook, macbook pro

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 10/09/2008 12:28:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  RUMOR: Next-gen Macbook-Macbook Pro price range to $799-$3000+ "Duncan RIley reports for The Inquisitr, "Some Apple retailers in the United States have been given price lists for a new Apple laptop line, and there’s a big surprise: an $800 laptop. The information comes from a source we would categorize as reliable, would have access to such information, and who has been accurate in the past."

"According to the source, Apple retail stores have been given price sheets that list 12 price points for the new range, with prices between $800-$3100. Current lines only have 8 price points, 3 Macbooks starting at $1099, 3 Macbook Pros and 2 Macbook Airs. According to the source, retail outlets usually get the price lists 10 days before products hit the market," Riley reports. "Technical specs for the new laptops were not included on the price sheet." Via MacDailyNews

Labels: apple, macbook, macbook pro, rumors

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 10/09/2008 11:39:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Is this the new MacBook Pro? Probably not

It's no secret that Apple is going to refresh the MacBook Pro and MacBook lines, and a new blurry picture has leaked on to the internet claiming to be the new MacBook Pro. This picture leaked out as AppleInsider reported the design changes coming to the MacBook Pro and MacBook.

"Production ready versions of Apple's next-generation MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks have surfaced stateside in matching attire, according to reports."

"According to the latest reports, both the new 13-inch MacBooks and 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros will share similarities not only in their employment of aluminum enclosures, but in their overall aesthetic as well, with the new 13-inch MacBooks for the first time matching their higher-priced cousins as if they were members of the same product family," AppleInsider reports.

"The new designs were described as a cross between the 13-inch MacBook Air introduced this January and the aluminum iMacs that made their debut during the summer of 2007,"

Labels: apple, macbook, macbook pro, rumors

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 9/25/2008 06:17:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Analyst expects Apple ‘special event’ this September to launch new iPod and MacBook lines "Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes it's only a matter of time before Apple reveals plans to hold a special event next month to usher in a new array of iPods and Mac notebooks," Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider.

"The Cupertino-based company has used a September gathering to launch new iPods for the past three years, Munster advised clients in a research report Wednesday, adding that Apple shares have risen about 4 percent on average from the week before those events to the week after," Marsal reports. "Historically, shares have risen more than 47 percent between the week before those events to the four months after, he said."

Marsal reports, "At this year's event, Munster is expecting Apple to refresh its iPod family through a number of 'pricing and capacity changes.' ...Sharing the stage with new iPods will be a complete overhaul of the company's mainstream notebook families, Munster believes." Via MacDailyNews .

Labels: ipod, macbook

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 8/06/2008 03:45:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Apple announces updated MacBooks and MacBook Pros CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today updated its popular MacBook(R) and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models. In addition, MacBook Pro includes the latest NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory, and Apple's innovative Multi-Touch(TM) trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air(TM). All Mac(R) notebooks include a built-in iSight(R) video camera for video conferencing on-the-go*, Apple's MagSafe(R) Power Adapter that safely disconnects when under strain and built-in 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g.** The new MacBook Pro features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo technology with up to a 2.6 GHz processor with 6MB of shared L2 cache; up to 4GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory and up to a 300GB hard drive, plus NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with up to 512MB of video memory. Every MacBook Pro now includes a trackpad with Multi-Touch gesture support for pinch, rotate and swipe, making it more intuitive than ever to zoom and rotate photos in iPhoto(R) or Aperture(TM) 2 or browse web pages in Safari(TM); an illuminated keyboard that makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls and a built-in ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the brightness of the display for optimal visibility.

Featuring a gorgeous 13-inch glossy widescreen display, and with prices still starting at just $1,099, the new MacBook lineup comes in three models and includes faster processors and larger hard drives across the line; sleek white 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz models with 120GB or 160GB 5400 rpm hard drives and a stunning black 2.4 GHz model with a massive 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive, previously only available as an option. The 2.4 GHz MacBook models ship with 2GB of memory standard, expandable up to 4GB across the line.

Every MacBook and MacBook Pro includes a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go; Apple's MagSafe Power Adapter that magnetically connects the power cord and safely disconnects when under strain; the latest generation of 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g; built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking; Bluetooth; analog and digital audio inputs and outputs; USB 2.0; FireWire(R) and a built-in SuperDrive(R).

Every Mac in the Apple lineup comes with iLife(R) '08, the most significant update ever to Apple's award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring a major new version of iPhoto and a completely reinvented iMovie(R), both seamlessly integrated with the new .Mac Web Gallery for online photo and video sharing***. Every Mac also includes Leopard(R), the sixth major release of the world's most advanced operating system which introduces Time Machine(TM), an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac; a redesigned Finder(TM) that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock and major enhancements to Mail and iChat(R). .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their home computer from a Mac over the Internet while out on the road.

Prices

The 2.1 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook $1,099 (US)

The 2.4 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook $1,299 (US)

The 2.4 GHz, 13-inch black MacBook $1,499 (US)

The 2.4 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro $1,999 (US)

The 2.5 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro $2,499 (US)

The 2.5 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US)

Labels: macbook, macbook pro

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 2/26/2008 02:39:00 PM 0 comments links to this post