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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Tuesday, May 16, 2006Apple Ships MacBook. Paul Buys MacBookToday, Apple quietly updated its Web site to include a new line of MacBook notebooks, which "complete the family" in Apple's words. This indicates two things: First, the iBooks are, finally, gone. Second, there won't be a 12-inch MacBook Pro. That's fine with me: I've always thought that all of Apple's notebooks should be widescreen anyway.The MacBooks come in both white and, for $200 more, black polycarbonate shells. They are 13.3-inch widescreen notebooks (1280 x 800) with glossy displays (finally!) and feature Intel Core Duo chips across the line, iSight cameras, built-in wireless, and MagSafe power cables. They weigh just 5.5 pounds and are a little over an inch thick. On the downside, they all feature integrated graphics that steal RAM from the system. None of the MacBooks include any kind of PC Card/ExpressCARD expansion or memory card readers. There are no faster hard drive options. There's no way to get a backlit keyboard. And as this picture shows, the keyboard... eh... what's up with the keyboard? Please tell me those are real keys. Please.  The MacBook pricing is reasonable for Apple. (Remember, you can get decent PC notebooks for $500 now.) The line starts at $1099 for a 1.83 GHz unit with 512 MB of RAM (unacceptable) a 60 GB hard drive, and a Combo optical drive. The mid-line version ups to a 2.0 GHz processor and a 60 GB hard drive for $1299. And at the high end, the new black MacBook offers an 80 GB hard drive for $1499. After comparing various MacBook and MacBook Pro models, I opted for the mid-line (white) model but upgraded to the 80 GB hard drive. I also ordered an extra battery. I'm curious whether the performance will be good enough, but given my experience with a Core Solo processor in the Mac mini and the fact that the MacBook has a Core Duo processor, I think it will be OK. The integrated graphics might mean this won't be a Windows Vista capable machine: Vista will support the integrated graphics in the box, but 64 MB works up to 1024 x 768 only for Aero Glass. My wife, however, is a built-in upgrade candidate, so perhaps I'll simply switch to a MacBook Pro next year. In any event, this will be an interesting dual boot machine for the next several months at least. If it runs Windows as well as I think it will, it should be my only travel PC for a while. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Related Meet the family. Now complete. Introducing the all-new MacBook Apple Unveils New MacBook Featuring Intel Core Duo Processors (PR) [ Posted at 10:05 AM | Permalink ]
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