Well the rumor mills finally got it right! Apple finally upgraded its MacBook and MacBook pro line to the latest and greatest of the chips from Intel, Penryn. Unlike the minor upgrades we saw in November, the upgrades are bigger this time around with improvements across the board. The Processor speeds have been bumped, Higher amount of Stock RAM, Higher capacity disks and other stuff thrown to make every Apple Fanboy lick his fingers in anticipation. Both MacBook and MacBook Pro’s now feature the Penryn Core 2 Duo Chipset and the higher end models walk away with a spectacular 6MB of L2 Cache.

Let me walk you guys through the upgrades

MacBook

Apple has done the right thing in sticking with the current price configuration. The base model without the Superdrive retails for 1099$ while the MacBook Black comes in at 1499$. While the pricing has remained the same, the specs of the base model have received a nice bump.

• Processor speeds now start at 2.1GHz for the base model, 2.4GHz for the $1299 and $1499 models.  
• 120 GB drive is standard for the base level MacBook, 160 GB for the $1299 MacBook and a whopping 250 GB drive for the MacBook lack. All drives are 5400 RPM.
• 2 GB RAM standard for all but entry-level MacBooks (that remains at 1 GB).

MacBook Pro

Well the upgrades are more pronounced for the Pro Machines. Have a look at the specs.

• Processor speeds now start at 2.4GHz, and are available up to 2.6GHz (2.5GHz being the standard for the 17″); the new 2.5GHz chip has 6 MB of L2 cache. Whoa!!
• The MBP 17″ now has an LED backlit screen option.
• 200 GB is the starting HD size (this is up from 120 GB in the last revision), 250 GB standard for the upper 15″ and 17″ models. A 300 GB drive is available BTO, as is a 7200 rpm 200 GB drive.
• NVidia 8600GT now starts at 256 MB of VRAM — 512 for the higher end 15″ and stock 17″.
• Multi-touch trackpad as in the MacBook Air.

All in all the upgrades look nice to me. But I would have loved to see Apple come out with thinner and more stylish enclosures for the MacBook and MacBook Pro. What do you guys think about the upgrades?

Looks like Apple has been upgrading its product line every Tuesday this year since the MacWorld. So what will we get to see the next Tuesday? My bet is on the iPhone SDK!

Initial reactions of the Macbook Air, were all ooh’s and aah’s when Uncle Steve unveiled it to a packed Audience in MacWorld 2008. While half the blogosphere was singing in praises of the Thinnovation that Apple came up with, the other half naturally took up to bashing the Macbook Air, for everything that it was missing.

You might ask me, to which half I belong? Well my answer is somewhere in between, because I believe this is what the Macbook Air deserves. And this is the reason why I held myself from hitting the publish button on this post, so that I could update my thoughts continuously.

Well my verdict is pretty clear, Apple clearly has a winner at its hands, but its not quite complete right now. There is more that can be added to the Macbook Air, that would make it a hot selling cake just like the iPhone.

Apple has once again showed its tremendous design and engineering skills with the Air. Macbook Air feels great, and has the sex appeal to turn heads, where ever you take it. Apart from that Macbook Air is a clever piece of engineering, packing so many features in such a small factor.

But as I said, I believe that Steve Jobs hurried through with the launch of Macbook Air. I believe that it still is an unfinished product.  Surely if Apple had enough time, we would have Macbook Air with much better specs.

Well here are a few places where the Macbook Air falls behind…

• 80GB hard disk isn’t enough these days. A 120GB or a 160GB would be more ideal.
• One USB port, seriously guys is Apple kidding us. Atleast 2 USB ports like the Macbook would be great.
• A FireWire port is missing. I’d love to see one on the Macbook Air. Maybe Apple wanted everyone to use the Wireless Time Capsule.
• The Audio Output currently is Mono, it would be nice if it was Stereo.

Having Said that Macbook Air, is going to improve lots down the lane, say about 9-12 months from now. I’d expect, the prices to significantly drop, and SSD drives become a lot more cheaper than they are now.

The Macbook Air, was built with portability, sleekness and style in mind, to solve most people’s mobile needs, with much better wireless capabilities than other laptop in the market. Enough said, I believe everyone was expecting little too much from Apple on this one.

Will I Buy it? Well not now atleast simply because I don’t have that kind of money to throw on the Macbook Air.. But maybe in the future, when the Macbook Air becomes more stronger and better.

Until then I’d love to see Apple to work on more thinner and lighter versions of the Macbook and Macbook Pro. That would surely give a big boost to Mac Sales.. Who doesn’t like Style? But the price and features should satisfy it, and right now the Macbook Air doesn’t do its price justice.

If you are wondering what I’m talking about, have a look at this Macbook vs Macbook Air

What do you think about Macbook Air? Sound off your views in comments.

Yay! MacWorld 2008 is here. Like we all expected, Apple came out with the ultra portable notebook which calls itself as the "World’s thinnest notebook".

If you’ve been a regular on this blog, then you’ll probably know that Karthik is a stick-in-the-mud fan of all things Apple. He has been eagerly waiting for this day, but unfortunately MacWorld 2008 coincided with his vacation.

Instead of simply rewriting everything about MacWorld 2008, I’ll just forward you to my blog where I have published a recap of all the announcements.

Link: MacWorld 2008 Recap

Hopefully, Karthik will update this article with his views once he is back from vacation. Keep an eye on this page.

Update : Check my views on the Macbook Air over here

Things are going pretty fast for Apple ever since Leopard came out 3 days ago. The latest of the  rumors to hit the internet is that, Apple is going to launch new Macbooks pretty soon. If you ask me the reason for this, then its pretty much simple, Apple has bundled the drivers for Intel’s GMA X3100 chipset into Leopard, that clearly suggests that Apple definitely has new Macs in the offing with Intel’s GMA X3100 on it.

Apple has included a full set of recent drivers for Intel’s GMA X3100 integrated graphics chipset, which is only built into the semiconductor firm’s motherboards for notebooks based on the Santa Rosa platform. Apple uses Santa Rosa for its most recent MacBook Pro models but equips them exclusively with dedicated graphics cards from non-Intel providers like NVIDIA, that leaves MacBooks with slower Graphics.

No other driver-related clues as to the MacBook and Mac mini upgrades have been found, but interestingly all the drivers are dated from October 11th which means that Apple finalized the current version of the drivers only days before Leopard was sent to manufacturing. Apple in the past has never included non supported drivers into OS X in the past, but this instance clearly shows that we will be seeing new Macbooks very soon..

Here are some screenshots that suggest the arrival of new Mac’s from Cupertino.. Steve I am dying to look at the new Macbooks!

If the GMA X3100 chipsets are used in the future Macbooks, its going to provide a tremendous boost to Graphics on the Mac. So I would suggest you hold on for sometime if you are planning to buy a Macbook, because Apple might upgrade them pretty soon. (One week if my guess is correct!)

Via MacNN and MacRumors