October 16th, 2008

Interesting facts about the new MacBooks

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:36 am

Categories: MacBook, MacBook Pro

Tags: Hard Drive, Apple MacBook, Apple Inc., Hard Drive Swap, Serial ATA Controller, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Jason D. O'Grady

Some quick observations about the new MacBooks culled from around the Web:

• The MacBook no longer has a Firewire port.

• Target Disk Mode is gone too (it died with Firewire).

• A new version of Migration Assistant (1.2.2 build 174) is supposed to be much faster.

• The MacBook Pro loses DVI in favor of a Mini DisplayPort.

• The MBP has two video cards (Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a 256MB or 512MB GeForce 9600M GT) but you have to log out and log in to change cards.

• “Late-2008″ MacBooks recognize the microphone on Apple earbuds and accept it as an input. iTunes respects button clicks from the earbuds to skip and repeat tracks, etc.

• Demonstration MacBooks are running Mac OS 10.5.5 build 9F2114 — the latest release is build 9F33.

• APC has posted full System Profiler report (360kb PDF) of the new MacBook.

• The new MacBook (and Pro) are the first notebooks from Apple to use a SATA optical drive. This opens the door to replacing the optical drive with a second hard drive.

• There are at least six Liquid Submersion Indicators (LSIs) in the the MacBook. Don’t feed coffee to your MacBook. Apple will know that you did.

• No video adapters included in the box. Prepare to buy at least one US$30 video adapter if you expect to connect any type of monitor to the new MacBooks (except the new 24-inch LED Cinema Display, that is).

• The keyboard is removable. If you’re willing to remove 56 screws.

• Hard drive swaps are now much easier in the MBP. The HDD sits next to the battery under a latched cover. The HDD is secured by one screw.

• The Kensington lock prevents the bottom latch from being released, securing the battery, RAM and hard drive.

• Two RAM slots support the 1066 MHz PC-8500 specification. Max chip density currently is 2GB for a total of 4GB. No word on 4GB chips.

• Apple switched from using Intel to an NFORCE chipset on the motherboard. The serial ATA controller is an NVIDIA MCP79.

• The glass front panel is bonded to the aluminum case behind the screen. If you bend the aluminum or break the glass fascia, you’ll have to replace the entire screen and top case. It’s one part.

• System Preferences has new icons for Energy Saver and trackpad. (Shouldn’t the CF bulb icon be white?)

Also worth a look is AppleInsider’s A closer look at Apple’s move to NVIDIA chipsets, DisplayPort.

(Sources: AppleInsider, APC)