The #1 reason I'm completely okay with the RAM being soldered to the mobo: NO CHANCE FOR A COLD BOOT ATTACK.
New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
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Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#72How is this news? I think it's well known that the new Retina-MBPs have made some hardware-upgradeability sacrifices in exchange for portability.
I'd only read about not being able to replace the HDD, but permanent memory modules? I'd say this is news, since I haven't heard of this situation in any other computer in recent memory. Of course now i read that Mac Airs do the same, so i feel silly. (Edit)
Yeah, the Macbook Airs have done that from the very start. Not sure about how widespread it is overall but both Sony's Vaio Custom Z and the ASUS Zenbook Prime have fixed non-upgradeable RAM.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
My thoughts exactly. But I do think that if I would put over $2000 to a laptop I wouldn't like the fact that I'm not able to upgrade memory after few years. It's ok with devices like iPad but $2000 laptop is a device that you expect to use a bit longer.
"after few years" Apple expects consumers to replace hardware every two to three years. Often this is encouraged by their practice of only supporting a single version of their operating system and their practice of making new versions of their operating systems incompatible with hardware more than a few years old. To put it another way, Apple doesn't want you to keep your Macbook for three years because there's no mo…
Sure, Apple wants to sell as much as possible. But it's unclear to me if this decision has that effect. Not if many people are like me.
Knowing that there are upgrade options makes it easier for me to pay up for an expensive machine. But years later I never actually buy an upgrade because it feels like a waste to put money into a machine that is nearing the end of its useful life anyway.
I don't even want to know how much money I have wasted on buying "future proof" hardware. So if anything I have to thank Apple for making this perfectly clear to me and saving me from sinking $2200 into a laptop ;-)
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#74Apple would make you buy a new machine just to install a new application, if they could. I have confidence they will figure it out, in due time. There is, after all, tremendous pressure to maintain their revenue.
I would say iOS already works like this. They push out OS updates to devices not capable of running them properly, and provide no easy path to roll back. Many non-technical users will just think their "old" phone has "gotten slow", as if that's the inevitable course that products take as they age. So they buy a new device.
The App Store only makes this worse, since at any given time you can only download the most recent version of any app. So if you don't upgrade iOS, you find yourself increasingly unable to install any new apps.
And all in all it seems very successful. There have only been 5 iterations of the iPhone over about 5 years, but how many people do you know that owned at least 3 of them?
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is that this isn't a macbook pro. Not for long. A fuckup or a compromise, but either way a departure from Apple's normally impeccably simple naming & branding of product lines. This is just a macbook. If all goes well and Apple can get prices down there might not be pros or airs anymore, just macbooks. In three sizes. I think Apple have somewhat of an aversion to having price be the only or main differentiat…
I don't think it's quite as stark as you say. This is a transition product just like the original Macbook Air was, which incidentally also looked like an odd duck compared to the clarity of having Macbook and Macbook Pro lines. It's likely just a typo in your comment, but the Pro Retina is a 15.4" model, not 13".
I agree. Its a bendable "rule" and Apple are willing to bend it in order to make gradual transition. But the Air is also an example that they return to clarity eventually. I don't think they'll continue to sell pros & airs for long if the only real difference is price. I definitely don't think they'll sell Air, Pro & Pro+ for long either, other wise they would have named it something else.
*Not a typo, but I clarified the sentence.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#76Not only RAM, SSD is SATA III, but using a different form factor and a proprietary connector, a la Macbook Air. The new Air also changed the already proprietary connector from the 2011 models, rendering unusable the existing third party SSD upgrade options. Wondering if MacbookPro SSD connector are the same as the new Air's or not...
I'm still kind of scratching my head about the use of SATA given these custom connectors. It keeps driver development simple, but at a cost in performance.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can max it out with 16GB of RAM for an additional $200. I'm not sure I can see myself putting more than that into a laptop during its useful life.
I have the late 2011 MBP with 16gb of RAM and I maxed out RAM usage earlier today just with Postbox, Steam, a backgrounded 2Gb VM, a large file copy in forklift and chrome. While that's a rare occurence now, I imagine that over time it will become more common.
I don't think you understand how RAM works. Hint: there is lots of caching goes on.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#78The real news is that they could shave as much of the macbook off as they actually did. Did you see the video? The screen display is now 'attached directly' to the unibody with no 'glass layer'. What does that even mean? Whatever it means, it's obviously not user-serviceable. I was amazed at how much they got off the macbook in size and weight - EDIT: everywhere, off the whole machine - and they're idiots for not put…
The screen used to be a module that was encapsulated inside a metal shell and covered with a glass layer. This meant the module itself had to have at least some degree of self-containment as an independent module, with some form of backing (however thin/flimsy) and a layer of glass to hold the "LC" (liquid crystal) in. Now the screen IS the display module. The metal shell is the actual backing of the LCD module, and…
Yes, this is actually what they meant by "no glass layer".
The integrated display isn't really a miracle of engineering. In my opinion it's more a miracle of business that they convinced their display manufacturer to make the retina display modules in the shape of the MBP's display assembly. This sort of thing has actually shown up in smartphones for a while but this is the first time we've seen it in a notebook computer.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly what I thought was happening, from the press headlines and the front page. (That it's a new macbook with retina display.) Until I clicked the video and found out the extent of the reduction here. They have completely blown the announcement in my opinion. Even something as little as "The All-New Macbook with Retina Display" would have been enough to draw attention to it. ('all-new') It's not everyday t…
What I don't understand is why it is marketed as a MacBook Pro, and not as a 15" MacBook Air. It has much more in common with the Airs than the Pros.
> It has much more in common with the Airs than the Pros.
Technologically yes, in terms of industrial design, power envelope and form-factor no, it doesn't have the characteristic tapered edge (or the possibility to slide it into an envelope), and it remains very heavy compared to an Air: the weight has gone down to that of the "old" 13" MBP (4.46 to 4.5 lbs), but it's half again the weight of the 13" Air 2.96 lbs) and almost twice the weight of the 11" (2.38 lbs).
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly what I thought was happening, from the press headlines and the front page. (That it's a new macbook with retina display.) Until I clicked the video and found out the extent of the reduction here. They have completely blown the announcement in my opinion. Even something as little as "The All-New Macbook with Retina Display" would have been enough to draw attention to it. ('all-new') It's not everyday t…
"All-new" in advertising is so overused as to be meaningless. It would make 25% of those eight words into white noise.
um, next to a picture like that it makes you pay attention to what's new about it.