When is Apple releasing Montevina notebooks?

Typically, Apple will let you trade up if you are within your 30 days but they will charge restocking. I got a pretty decent discount on my MB early this year but I cheerfully handed them restocking to get the Penryn version. I'm in the market for a MBP one of these days but I'm not in a hurry.

The kids are asking for Macbooks but they can wait a bit longer. Maybe I'll give them old windows notebooks with Ubuntu to tide them over. I might even grab that $300 Dell E with Linux for them as it's fairly easy to find a lot of the same open source software for Linux that is available for OSX. They might not have their ichat, itunes, etc but they can use open office and surf the net. Perhaps Apple will see the light and offer a plastic MB at an even lower price.

In today's market, I'd really like to see Apple offer a sub $500 notebook entry. Now that they've achieved some market share growth, I'm hoping the next round of Apple updates offers some lower entry level price points both for the MB and the Mac Mini. Perhaps all the current models go to aluminum and slide slightly upscale and then Apple could offer a new low-end lightweight MacBookMini ?

 

they're probably waiting for the end of summer to get new MBP with Montevina.

 

Hopefully they will update screen resolutions with the update. It's incredible sony has the tz with an 11.1 screen @ 1366*768, and the new bz or z (cant remember) with a 13.1 screen at 1600x900, yet the macbook still offers a paltry 1280*800 and the PRO only 1440*900. And still no hdmi or esata. Apple should be leading the pack here, not trailing.

 

I would love a matte finish option on the macbooks and maybe have a blackbook with the same specs as the 1350 macbook at the same price. I prefer black, especially for electronics, but i'm not paying an extra 200 for 40gb and a colour.

 

whoops I just drooled all over the table...

My wish for the new MBP would be less heat and more battery life. But if a quad comes along I'll probably just have to get it. Rational mind wants to say that it's not very often I max out 2 cores but it's being overruled by pure geek lust.

 

The 15" could take a 1680 resolution for sure, but really not much more. Apple has a 17" with 1920x(?) though. Its exterior is about the same size as other's 15" notebooks. When I looked at it in the store that screen rez seemed awfully small though.

What would be nice would be two DVI ports or a dock so I can connect 2 external monitors. That's really missing now that large LCDs have gotten so cheap that a dual 22" setup costs less than $400.

Thinking about the quad, if at all it will have to go in the 17" - the 17" has a lot of room for cooling and batteries, the 15" is totally cramped as it is and squeezing a presumably hotter quad core in there just won't work.

 

Well if they get quad cores, you will be getting more heat less bettery life. Pluse more $$$.

 

precisely, I wonder through external connectors what they output to, max res for what the monitor supports?

 

I'd like to see the MacBook Pro adopt some MBA features, in terms of sculpted design a bit, bring in more USB ports and HDMI by now, please . Option of 1920x1200 (although I personally think that's too much on a 15.4-inch display), and a white key-ed MBA backlit keyboard. That would be an awesome notebook!

 

Yeah after having the MBA keyboard sam it's such a better keyboard to type with. With the MBP keys are to close together and overlapping in typing is terrible

 

I just don't like the feel of the MBP keyboard. I definitely prefer the MBA/MacBook keyboard. And from the looks of it, I think Apple will give the MBP the MBA keyboard as well, considering Apple recognized that the new keyboard style was the "new way to go" by giving the Apple desktop Keyboard the MacBook keys.

 

yeah i'll cry if my macbook pro arrives and in a couple of months the keyboard gets refreshed. I don't care too much in terms of cpu \ gpu and losing out, but oh the keyboard switch would be nuts

 

Hello Sam and all of the NBR Apple Core. A few of us have been waiting for HP to release the HDX Centrino 2 with the X9100 processor. We are becoming disgruntled and getting tired of HP's dates a-go-go. I can navigate PCs blind-folded and know very little about Mac. And although we love what HDX offers, it is my understanding that Apple will be lowering its MSRP on all its new Macs. So, we are seriously beginning to consider moving platforms to Apple’s Mac and Leopard OS.

Can you please have a look at the HDX and tell me what you think of it. I realize that Apple does not offer anything remotely close to what HP offers on its HDX. We are hoping that Apple will come out with the new Mac Book Pro with Centrino 2 very soon offering Intel's X9100 Extreme processor as well as a design resembling Mac Book Air, which would include a Blu Ray Writer, a 1900 x 1600 true HD screen, HDMI, be 2-screen capable, among other things. Perhaps Apple may even come out with a new 24” iMac with these specs. That would even be better and more economical for us.

 

Well I guess the answer to the Thread question is, Never. XD

 

^if that turns out to be true,im going to hunt you down and kill u in very painful way!!!

 

It's going to be a Phenom-Puma arrangement. Phenom's are picking up steam now that the TLB bug has been iced in the latest revisions. Plus, ATI graphics to boot, with the MacBook's sporting the 3200HD integrated option, and the MBP's with hybrid graphics using the 3200HD with a dedicated mobile graphics card. What's ATI's strongest mobile graphics card available now?

 

There are no mobile versions of the Phenom and it's power consumption is far too high for the laptops or the iMac. It's performance is also no match for previous generation Kentsfield cores much less Yorkfield cores or Nehalem. There is no reason to use AMD CPUs in the foreseeable future.

 

^nuf said. intels are way better than amd CPU. for starters, the new macbook pro should include 4 or more usb ports, HDMI, choice of BD-ROM drives, run cooler,even better battery life, Nvidia 9600m gt/9700m gt. all screens should be LED(the WSXGA screen in the MBP is not LED), the new MBA keyboards, montevina processors, and dedicated media keys. keep all the good stuff it has right now ofcourse.

 

u can get 1920x1200 on the macbook pro 17" and anything higher than 1440x900 for a 15" screen is overkill. the 1280x800 on the MB is perfect.

 

Oh please no media keys, I personally hate having all these stop/play/pause/media/whatever buttons right next to the keyboard.

I think that the Macbook Pro not having the media keys is just great!

 

apple doesn't offer anything like it because it likes to offer good battery life and it likes to keep things portable and the 16 LBs of the HDX wouldn't cut it. and the true HD screen res 1920x1200 and that sort of power inside that AIR would burn a hole through the case. the x9100 is in the 20.1 inch frame of the HDX for a reason!

 

then agian, thats what the remote is for, how about a slot for the remote to go into.

 

How about if they revamped the remote to go in the express card slot?

 

That would be a good idea, yes!

 

Hi ValmonNR,

At this point, I don't believe Apple will push out an HDX-competitor in the notebook area: its not a very large or lucrative market for Apple; they prefer to profit in the large markets . A 24-inch iMac, I could see them increasing the power of (providing they have sufficient cooling) the iMacs, or possibly pushing out a midtower Mac to fulfill that segment. Nehalem will be a game-changer, in terms of how much power a notebook and desktop will have in the same size chipset and for the same price, and I think Apple will push out more notebooks and desktops into its Mac lineup at that point!

 

what i would like is for the next macbook/pro to have is a intel chipset. i DON'T want a custom chipset.

 

A 24" iMac that includes an Intel X9100 Extreme Processor would be great. Given the News release of not too long ago that Apple will be slashing prices on its new wave of Macs to pick up market share and compete more readily with PCs, for either the Mac Book Pro (with a Mac Book Air Design) or the 24" iMac, do you feel that might take place within the next 30 days?

 

Intel Processor Line-Up for 2009:

Intel plans to release an eight-core version of the Nehalem CPU possibly in 2009. This processor will more than likely be an Extreme Edition model. Like Nehalem, it will be manufactured using a 45 nm process.

Intel Westmere is scheduled for release sometime in 2009. Westmere is the die-shrunk 32 nm version of Nehalem.

Intel Calpella is the code name for the successor to the Intel Montevina platform. Calpella will be the sixth Centrino generation and positioned to compete against AMD's Fusion platform. It is thought to support the Gilo CPU which will be available in dual and quad core models.

AMD Shrike platform is expected to be released at the same time as AMD Shift in 2009. The Shrike platform consists of the Shift CPU and its companion chipset. Shrike will include a next generation southbridge, support for AMD's M9x discrete GPU's, 802.11 a/b/g/n, 3G, DASH (desktop and mobile architecture for systems management hardware), and Ultra WideBand (UWB).

Microsoft DirectX 11 is expected to be launched sometime in 2009. New features will include Tessellation/Displacement, Multithreaded Rendering, and Compute Shaders. It will also include support for Shader Model 5.0. DirectX will be included in Windows 7.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) is expected to be released in early 2009.

Intel Larrabee is expected to be launched sometime in 2009 with samples as early as Q4 2008. Larrabee is a multi-core, programmable general purpose graphics processors (GPGPU). It is a GPU, physics and scientific calculation chip all in one. It will use a tweaked x86 instruction set and be used for specialized applications. The GPU is expected to contain up to 16 cores and each core can execute up to 4 simultaneous threads allowing up to 64 total threads. Larrabee will be manufactured using Intel's 45 nm process. Each core is thought to be able to operate at speeds above 2 GHz. Larrabee will introduce a new extension set called Advanced Vector Extensions which will be similar to Intel's SSE extension sets. Larrabee will support OpenGL, DirectX and ray-tracing instructions. Larrabee will use GDDR5 memory.

Intel Moorestown platform is expected to be launched in 2009. Moorestown is the next generation platform for MIDs and UMPCs and will replace Intel's Menlow platform. Moorestown will consist of Lincroft CPU, Langwell IOH chipset, and EvansPeak comms chipset. Some devices based on Moorestown could see up to an 100% improvement in battery life due to a total system TDP of less than 2 Watts.

Intel's Lincroft CPU is expected to be launched in 2009 and will be part of the Moorestown platform. Lincroft will bring the graphics core and memory controller all into the processor itself. It will either be a 45 nm or 32 nm chip. It will include support for DDR3, PCIe, USB, and SATA. It will likely use Intel's QuickPath Interconnect technology thus replacing the FSB.

Intel's Langwell IOH chipset is expected to be launched in 2009 and is a component of the Moorestown platform. Langwell will include support for solid state devices (SSD).

 

you lost me

 

I actually read all of it.

 

wow, so if i bought a new MBP this december, will i need to upgrade later next year?

 

Usually not, unless you have way too much money and always want the latest technology . Otherwise, current notebooks are still quite powerful for at least two years. Core Duos are still really powerful, because software hasn't caught up.

 

Hmm, video cards are more of a bottleneck than the processor (3d stuff), so I have to agree.
Plus, macs seem to retain their value well.