News Bits: 15.4-inch Apple MacBook Coming in 2007, HP Now Offers PayPal, Everex StepNote NC1500

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Foxconn to ship 15.4-inch MacBook to Apple in 2007

Foxconn Electronics will be producing a 15.4&quot; MacBook model in May 2007 for Apple Computer. Asustek will no longer be the sole supplier for Apple's MacBook; the company will see its notebook orders from Apple cut by one-third.

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HP adds PayPal payment option to HPShopping.com

October 26^th - HP announced that it is offering PayPal as a payment option at its Home &amp; Home Office Store. According to HP PayPal will make it easier than ever to purchase HP products as it allows customers to use their credit cards, bank accounts, and stored balances without having to share their financial information when shopping online.

In addition to PayPal, HP Home &amp; Home Office customers can use most major credit cards to make purchases. The HP Home Store also offers qualifying customers an e-financing program.

Link to HP Home &amp; Home Office Store

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Asus to push own-brand notebooks in 2007

Asustek Computer will be pushing sales of its own-brand notebooks in 2007 in order to sustain continued growth of its laptop business. Asustek will be losing some orders for Apple's MacBook to ODM competitor Foxconn.

Asustek is expected to ship 3 million OEM notebooks to clients this year, two million of which will go to Apple, as well as 2.8-3 million of its own-brand units. It may be able to push the number of own-brand shipped notebooks to 5 million in 2007. Asustek has secured orders for a 12.1&quot; notebook from Dell, and market rumors state that the company will also make 14.1&quot; models for Dell.

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Apple releases new MacBook firmware

Apple posted an updated firmware this week for its MacBook that addresses random shutdown issues. According to Apple, the firmware updates a critical SMC monitoring component to improve system stability and random shutdown issues. Apple indicated that users with OS X v10.4.6 will need to update to 10.4.8 to install the new firmware.

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Via, Everex launch claimed &quot;world's most energy efficient notebook&quot;

October 26^th - VIA Technologies and Everex Systems Inc. unveiled the StepNote NC1500 notebook, the first Everex notebook that uses the advanced VIA C7-M processor.

The StepNote NC1500 features a 15.4&quot; widescreen display with DiamondBrite Technology, built in WLAN and a DVD burner, and retails for $498. The VIA C7-M processor has a 1.5GHz clockspeed and an ultra-low peak power consumption of only 12W. The laptop is able to dynamically transition between intermediate power states thanks to VAI Enhanced PowerSaver and VIA TwinTurbo technology and offers up to 20 percent longer battery life than comparable systems. The full specifications of the NC1500 are as follows:

• Processor: 1.5GHz VIA C7-M
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2
• Graphics: VIA UniChrome Pro with Chromotion CE Video Display Engine
• RAM: 512MB DDR2, 2 slots
• HDD: 60GB 4200RPM PATA
• Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW DL
• Display: 15.4&quot; WXGA with DiamondBrite Technology
• LAN: 10/100 Ethernet
• Wireless: 802.11b/g
• I/O: (1) DB 15-Pin VGA, (3) USB 2.0 ports, (1) RJ45, (1) RJ-11, (1) Headphone/Line Out, (1) Microphone/ Line In
• Dimensions: 14.1” x 10.7” x 0.9 – 1.5” (W x D x H)

Everex's full line of desktops and notebooks are available in over 2,900 WalMart locations throughout the U.S.

Find out more about the Everex StepNote NC1500

VIA C7-M processor info

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And probably takes 50% more time to do something than comparable systems...bah!

HP and PayPal is a good thing though, and if the 14.1" ASUS/Dell rumor is true I'm going to guess that's the XPS M1410! Maybe it'll have dedicated graphics this time...

 

I wouldn't own VIA anything after owning two computers with S3 graphics.

Yuck.

 

I think Asus should really reorganize their notebook lines. They seems to have tons of nearly same spec notebooks rolling around with different kind of chassis, it waste so much space, they could use the extra space to pump out even more macbooks for apple.

 

Except that the VIA notebook DOESN'T offer 20% more battery life because it's equipped with a miserable three cell battery.

It gets an hour and a half, tops.

 

15.4" Macbook??? Apple still thinks the current Macbooks are not heavy enough? They are not capable of making a laptop lighter than 5 lbs or what?? I'd rather see a 13" Macbook Pro. Definitely would trade my current macbook and go for it.

 

12w?

My laptop uses around 20w in on idle on AC (on the AC adpater) and it's a Core Duo (non low voltage).

I haven't seen it peak above 45 w on the AC adapter (the AC adapter's efficency, of course, is <1)

Programs that show the battery drain voltage claim around 13 w avg, 9w at idle...

If a non-LV Core Duo can do this, I'm sure a 945GM + Core Duo ULV can do pretty close (with much better performance)

 

What's the point of designing a 12-watt CPU if you're not going to include a half-decent battery? The specs are terrible. My two-year-old Toshiba would thrash that thing!

 

15.4 MacBook. That's MacBook, not MacBook Pro.
Does this mean that we'll never see a 13.3" Core 2 Duo MacBook ?
And if these current normal Core Duo 13.3" MacBook's are about to be phased out, would one be considered lucky if he/she could still find one if it's still available?

 

A real good move. After introducing powere macbook pros at a competitive price.

for last 6 months I wanted to buy a amacbook. But the screen size kept me away.

I think the $1500 macbook will be replaced with the new 15 inch macbook

I think we still will get 13 inch macbook

Apple is just targetting all customers.

 

This vindicates Macs growing popularity in notebooks.

Got to wait and watch.

Microsoft might well turn off the support to mac if macs increase the sales by another 10 %.

This means ms will stop marketing office for mac.

 

Yeah, it seems like some people are getting the impression that the 15.4" MacBook would replace the 13.3" MacBook. That probably would not be the case. This is similar to when Apple had both 12 and 14" versions of the iBook. Just having a lower-end machine for people who want a larger screen, but don't need the extras of the MacBook Pro.

 

There's not really a reason for MS to do this though. As it is, Microsoft actually makes a significant amount of money selling Office for the Mac, so even if there was that kind of increase in marketshare (I assume you meant a total increase of another 10 percentage points, not simply a 10% sales increase on existing sales), MS would probably still do pretty well selling Office to them (not to mention that a certain percentage of those people buying Macs might also now also be buying Windows licenses to install on them as well).

 

"Lower-end" machine, being the 13.3" one, would it continue to have the CD, and not get the upgrade to the C2D?

Maybe to answer this question, is if Intel continues to make the CD at all. If Intel stops making the CD altogether, and only cranks out C2D's, then if Apple continues with the 13.3" one, it'd *have* to be with C2D also.

A lot of people put a lot of effort into all the spy and speculation work, because Apple is so darn secretive.

Does anyone know if Intel is continueing to make the plain CD ?

 

No idea what Intel plans on doing, but if Apple's next OS is 64bit, then I guess they would all be C2Ds. Besides, I don't think there's enough of a performance difference between the CD and C2D to make a machine low-end or high-end based on that alone. Afterall, the current Pro and 'non-Pro' versions all have the same processor.

What I'm interested in is what the screen resolution will be on the 15.4" MacBook. If they do what they did on the iBook (ie. have the SAME resolution on the !2" and the 14"), then, personally, I don't see the point. If they give it WXGA+ (like the MacBook Pro), then I think a lot of people will get the non-Pro version instead (only because I *think* that most Mac users aren't gamers/3D animators).

Anyone have an educated guess on the screen res?

 

Most people expect the regular MacBook to get Core 2 Duo as well, although I am guessing that it might be the slower Core 2 Duos that you see on budget PC notebooks as well (i.e. I don't expect to see 2.16 and 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBooks).

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same exact screens in the MBP and 15.4" MB, frankly. Is there even a 15.4" screen at 1280x800 resolution? Seems like that would be pretty painful. I think the difference was less obvious with the 12 and 14" iBooks.

There are probably an increasing number of Mac buyers like myself who want the Mac side, but also do want to install Windows using BootCamp and use some of the 3D capabilities of the MBP, so that will always be a drawing point.

But yeah, the MacBook so far has been really successful for Apple, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the 15.4" MacBook do well too.

-Zadillo

 

Actually, I think that the MacBook Pro is the only 15.4" notebook currently in production that uses WXGA+ (which I think the perfect resolution) - everything else is either WXGA or WSXGA+ and some even WUXGA (ridiculous!).

I agree that the ability to have a Mac and run (Windows) games is a big draw. If the 15.4" MacBook has WXGA+, it'll be a tough decision for me... Unless my dream comes true and Apple puts in a low-end dedicated video card into the MacBook. But that's definitely asking for too much!

 

Mac OS X has always been 64 bit capable I believe. The old PPC processors were 64bit processors, so for them to move back up to 64 bit shouldn't be a problem

 

But problem is, wouldn't new mac programs even run on the old processor? If I remember correctly, the core duo needed an emulator to run programs developed for powerpc. Don't know, I kinda doubt Apple would waste their time with old technology.

 

Yes, Mac OS X has been partially 64-bit for a few revisions now. The upcoming version, Leopard (10.5), coming out in Spring, will be the first to be fully 64-bit (it will of course also include full 32-bit support to run on Core Duo machines as well).

-Zadillo

 

Yes, Mac OS X on Intel machines uses a technology called Rosetta which allows for emulation of apps written for the PowerPC version of OS X.

Presumably support will be included for both 32 and 64 bit versions of OS X for a number of years at least, and I would expect most software to also include 32 and 64 bit support.

 

Yes its true.
Actually, If the 17 inch MBP were available in WUXGA I think I would buy it right away.
At least for me, there's never too much resolution.