No netbook, no touch screen, no Blu-Ray - here's what we did get from Apple

  

Although Apple won't be showing us its wares here till later, news of Apple's latest unveiling was already flashing on screens in Canary Wharf's Canada Square where your intrepid reporter had decamped for the evening.

The headline there was a cut-price $999 MacBook (£719 here!) - not quite the $899 or even $799 that some had hoped for but no doubt some welcome relief for those few staff left kicking around in the empty offices of Lehman Brothers UK who still have some of last year's bonus left to spend. The fact that it was simply a new version of the old $1099 plastic MacBook goes some way to showing the lack of imagination Apple put into this 'notebook' event. Read on for the deets.

The new stuff, the much vaunted 'brick', turned out to be the 'Unibody', a construction technique for the  MacBook and MacBook Pro additions that involves carving out a laptop case from a single block of aluminium - avoiding the need to dirty oneself with any old-school welding. Liberal applications of glass add to the new/old iMac-esque look on the newcomer models.

The new trackpad is glass and buttonless - or rather the entire trackpad is a giant button (with right clicking for power users). It gets extra multitouch abilities but it's not a mini display so don't get your hopes up there.

No sign either of some of the further fetched rumours such as a tablet MacBook or a 'MacBook nano' Eee PC netbook rival. And still no Blu-Ray. Steve Jobs responded to that question by saying, "we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace," although Apple's fondness for HD downloads makes us think that Blu-Ray has already missed its chance to appear in Mac colours.

One thing we did get was a much appreciated graphics boost - away from lowly Intel integrated graphics and towards Nvidia GPUs, with the freshly-released GeForce 9400M finding its way into even the MacBook Air. The new MacBooks now also have a Pro-matching, LED backlit screen, which should be a big improvement.

We'll have more this afternoon when we get to get up close and personal with the new gear ourselves. In the meantime enjoy these delightful press shots from Apple - and start saving.

[ Apple]

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
© Dennis Publishing

 

 

 

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