It's been a bit quiet lately

[pmoeser]

I know that the iPad is out and most of the rumours and excitement has passed for a time, but surely there's things to talk about?

What about the prospect of new MacBook pros with i7s?

Haven't windows users had access to these already?

Surely they are running under-clocked so as not to roast nuts!?! (Sorry ladies)

What about experiences with a desktop i7? Any stories to share?

I've been using my 24" iMac that I got brand new from the refurb store and can't believe how much more I am enjoying computing. Big screen, fast processor... I'm archiving my DVDs for AppleTV almost in real time! Certainly beats the one movie per 24 hour period on the G5!

I'm looking forward to some more stories appearing soon.

Don't forget to click the odd ad link from time to time

[MichaelQ]

Originally Posted by pmoeser

What about the prospect of new MacBook pros with i7s?

Haven't windows users had access to these already?

I know Mac users like to think Apple only gives them the "latest and greatest". But Apple has been intels clearing house bitch ever since they hooked up.

Most of the chips Apple sell haven't even been an option on Windows machines for 6 months - and this isn't just a recent thing.

There you go - now you have something new to talk about

[pmoeser]

I suppose it gives them time to make sure the video card and the processor can all talk to one another to make it a seamless computing experience! (;

[MJCP]

Apple has a way of giving the illusion that it is a much bigger company than it actually is. Between ironing out wrinkles with iMacs and delivering iPad somewhere close to on time I'd wager its hardware engineering resources are pretty stretched. I know at least one person at Intel who was quite certain Apple was going to deliver i5-based MacBook Pros before now.

I'd rather Apple dedicated resources where they are needed and delivered good products a little late than it went flat-out to do everything at once to arbitrary deadlines. Remember the MobileMe/iPhone 3G/App Store rollout? Let's not do that again.

[golfer]

welcome back MJCP!

[MJCP]

Nice to be back.

[John Chidgey]

Originally Posted by MichaelQ

I know Mac users like to think Apple only gives them the "latest and greatest". But Apple has been intels clearing house bitch ever since they hooked up.

Most of the chips Apple sell haven't even been an option on Windows machines for 6 months - and this isn't just a recent thing...

This is mostly true - the thing to remember is that Intel charge a fortune for early-adopters of their latest and greatest CPUs - a premium that is really not good value for money and I firmly believe that Apple wait for the prices to reach a reasonable $ cost vs performance trade-off. They also spend more time testing the integration of the hardware and software than any other manufacturer. Those two items put them behind the performance nuts in PC-land.

Let's not forget that even in their pre-Intel days, similar arguments applied - Intel aren't being treated by Apple and aren't treating Apple any differently.

[MichaelQ]

It's been a few years since intel have done the big premium charge for the new processors. Probably the last 2-3 years most new models have come in at the same price if not a bit cheaper. Been doing it since Core came out - and that's 4+ years.

It's not just chips - its memory speeds, hard drive sizes and speeds, mobo bus speeds, lcd resolutions on screens… I think if they could they would still be selling combo drives.

Current iMacs are mostly Core2Duo and came out about 4-6 weeks before the i5 release. Hello Clearance Sale! At least they were current chips at the time - the previous models used chips that had already been deleted when they were released.

Apple sell a squillion, obviously at huge margins because the bits are cheap - that's fine and in reality the machines are still awesome. They can emulate an Excel Spreadsheet like nobodies business.

The i3 and i5 have almost been out 2 months. MacBook updates? Nada. iMac updates? Zippo.

Apple is very small. Tiny. Stupidly and awesomely small - that's why it works so well. Small groups can make a decision and get on with it. Apple is small and clever - most of their decisions are even very good ones. (Yes iPhone 3G dock, I'm looking at you. Useless piece of crap).

I've forgotten where I was going.

Apple. Release the damn i3/i5 MacBook Pro's so I can go back to working in front of TV dammit.

That'll do.

[MJCP]

Just on the "clearing house" question, don't forget Intel custom-built low-profile low-power chips for the MacBook Air before making them available to anyone else. Intel acknowledges that it was Apple leading that initiative, which has since become a cornerstone of Intel's business.

So yes, sometimes Apple lags for one reason or another, but not always.

[MichaelQ]

I did say most

The Macbook Unibodyprototype, I mean Air, was one exception - though it turns not a terribly good one. Nice demo though. And usually the Mac Pro gets a nice head start - though perhaps telling, not this year.

There is also some conjecture as to whether the iPads A4 is a superdooper A9 Next Gen, or the 2 year old A8 with some code missing to make it last longer. I'm betting the latter.