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Hype and Non-Hype from Apple’s WWDC…

June 12th, 2012 by steve

A quick read of a report from the Apple WWDC presentation was interesting.

It appears the Apple phone world has few real innovations — some enhancements to Siri and finally turn-by-turn navigation. It’s great that Apple’s providing their own maps. (Here’s hopin’ they didn’t buy them from Mapquest.) Still, the phone enhancements that interest me basically catch it up to Android. Just more Apple hype, from my perspective.

But that Premium Macbook Pro…. Wow. Just wow. That’s not hype. It’s nearly as thin as a MacBook Air, but includes more features, including Retina display technology. The screen is 2880×1800 pixels in resolution at 15″. Can my eyes even appreciate that?  The unit features a solid state drive, with a size that maxes out at 768GB. The battery lasts 7 hours. I thought it would last even longer since it doesn’t have to spin a hdd, but then again, that screen is lighting a load of pixels.

Their engineers are leading the pack on this type of hardware. Find me a Dell, Asus, or anything that compares with that Pro. I am sure it’s not that Apple engineers are special and can make what others cannot. More likely, they are willing to create this kind of hardware because they know their ad department can sell it. Good for them.

Still, at a starting price of $2199 — yeah, that’s the starting price — I’ll pass. Not only does it seem excessive, having it would kind of make you look like the kid whose mother called your Resident Assistant and provided a pizza party for the entire floor for your birthday. That price pushes it a little over the top.


This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 at 8:49 am and is filed under apple, General Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Hype and Non-Hype from Apple’s WWDC…”

  1. alacy Says:
    June 14th, 2012 at 11:13 am

    The MacBook Pro with Retina Display is great until it needs a repair. iiFixit’s latest teardown reveals the newest member of the MacBook Pro line is the “least-repairable laptop” the team has ever had to tear apart and gives it 1 out of 10 for ease of repair. Apple used a lot of glue and other techniques, like numerous pentalobe screws, that make upgrades and repairs virtually impossible. RAM is soldered to the logic board. The lithium-polymer battery is also glued in, which makes it difficult to remove without potentially dangerous battery breakage. Apple built the layers of the display into the unibody case to eliminate the need for a separate cover glass. it means that if something manages to break the display, it might require a complete replacement of the laptop.

  2. steve Says:
    June 14th, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Whew… That’s ridiculous.

    I think that when Tim and I tried to replace a hdd on a older mac notebook, we counted 23 screws that had to be removed.

    Well made, or annoyingly made? 🙂

  3. steve Says:
    June 14th, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    Pentablobe screws?

    http://www.ifixit.com/blog/2011/01/20/apples-diabolical-plan-to-screw-your-iphone/

    Oh… OK.

  4. alacy Says:
    June 14th, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    The only way they could get it that thin was the heavy use of glue. Apple always designs more for looks than for ease of repair.

  5. steve Says:
    June 15th, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    Yeah — I am sure that’s why the chips are soldered as well.

    There’s probably not a lot to go wrong with this since it has not hdd. I wonder how the fan on the processor works — what’s it’s MTBF and it’s replace-ability?