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INSIDE CHANNELWEB

New MacBooks Take The Heavy Out Of Metal


By Damon Poeter, ChannelWeb

5:15 PM EDT Tue. Oct. 14, 2008
Page 1 of 2
Apple kicked off the launch party for its latest lineup of MacBooks Tuesday with some unsubtle digs at Microsoft and proceeded to confirm several pre-launch rumors about graphics, specs and pricing during a two-hour showcase of burnished aluminum eye candy at the computer maker's Cupertino, Calif. campus.

The latest MacBooks feature Nvidia GeForce 9400 motherboard graphics, and speculation that Apple would unveil its first sub-$1,000 notebook also proved accurate, if barely, as CEO Steve Jobs announced that an older, white plastic model would be re-priced at $999.

Quick Clicks: MacBook Eye Candy

But the stars of the show were clearly the new aluminum MacBooks, featuring ultra-thin, all-metal enclosures, LED-backlit displays, the 3D graphics boost courtesy of Nvidia, and smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpads offering about 40 percent more tracking area than previous Apple notebooks.

The new products, like all current Macs, will feature Apple's Boot Camp software, meaning MacBook users will be able to run Microsoft Windows XP in addition to Apple's own OS X operating system. Demonstrating a new MacBook running XP led Apple COO Tim Cook to quip, "When I look at this, it sends shivers up my spine."

Bashing Redmond was a running gag for Cook, according to MacWorld's Jason Snell, who live blogged Tuesday's event. Explaining how Apple has made dramatic inroads in notebook market share in the past year, Cook said part of that success resulted from "something we didn't do -- Vista."

Nvidia, which is set to launch its 9-Series motherboard graphics processors for desktops very soon, purpose-built a mobile version of its upcoming GeForce 9400 chipset for the new MacBooks, according to Apple. Asked if Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia's 16-core mobile chipset would be made available to other notebook makers, Jobs indicated the product could wind up being a one-off for Apple.

"We helped them, and we're the first to take it to market, and maybe the only, but that's up to them," Jobs said Tuesday, according to MacWorld.

For its part, Nvidia is claiming its 9-Series chipsets deliver five times the graphics performance of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel's G45 integrated graphics and twice that of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Advanced Micro Devices' 7-Series chipsets.

The new lineup, to be made available at Apple retail stores Wednesday according to Jobs, includes two new basic MacBooks with 13.3-inch displays, a pair of MacBook Pros with 15.4-inch screens and a third with a 17-inch display, as well as a couple of new 13.3-inch MacBook Air systems that won't ship until early next month.

Next: Specs And Pricing

 
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