Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Releases Minor Update to White MacBook
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
While TDM is useful, removing the MBs hd and placing it in an external case isn't too big a task although its not nearly as convenient and does require you to have a USB enclosure hanging around.
Yep. FW400.
I'm glad I spent $300 more for my aluminum MacBook with equal or inferior specs now. 
Oh well, I still love my machine.
Oh well, I still love my machine.
Refurbished the aluminium model isn't that bad.I'm glad I spent $300 more for my aluminum MacBook with equal or inferior specs now.
I'm somewhat surprised that it didn't see a speed bump though. Save money and get a better processor and FireWire but you lose the metal case. It's tough isn't it?
Ahem, you're not wasting $1,000 if you specifically want a PC. There is much more value in the Windows world.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220521
And I know you're going to bring up the "it still uses Windows" argument, but with Windows 7 coming out your point is moot. This MacBook I own is looking more lame each and every day. Good thing these have great resell value.
Its really difficult to compare prices per specs especially in an abstract pc market.
thats a bit heavy for a portable machine...and a 15" display with a 13" resolution might get a bit annoying to look at.
Just pick up a 17" grab a 500gb drive for 90$ slap it in and be good to go.
$200 for a 500GB upgrade...lmao, I love Apple sometimes...
this update doesnt come as too much of a surprise. considering the back to school sales...their white macbook is definitely their most popular computer...especially at Uni's and other educational institutions.
its a pretty good value for the money...and comes at pretty good timing, i'd say these will be flying out of the stores fast.
I agree. Incredible value for students with this promotion. I see loads of MacBooks and Pros on campus already - but I think there will be plenty more come September.
The very first commercial referenced the white MacBook. The girl said that for under $1000, there was only one machine, and it only had a 13 inch screen, and she needed something bigger. So cool your blood down, man.
At one point Apple was promising to remove PVC from all its products by the end of 2008.
Won't happen there are technical issues that make that very difficult, if not impossible, with USB.
Nothing is safe until documented and verified.
Not to pull this thread way off track here but your attitude is what has turned WikiPedia into the mess it is these days. It is verified information when you have a spec sheet, Cupid information or other data at hand. What you have right now is speculation.
Speculation is fine for this forum, in a nut shell it is what the whole web site is all about. Wikipedia is not about speculation or even personal opinion, it is an interesting approach to a collective encyclopedia. A place for facts.
Due to it's nature Wikipedia will never be perfect but it can be a new approach that is better than some of the older resources. The problem is it requires that people post/update responsibly. It is not the malicious poster that will harm the wiki but rather those with good intentions, but poor grasp of the facts or the ability to express them that will sink Wikipedia.
In some ways Wikipedia is a stroke of genius as an idea. What hasn't been resolved is dealling with the discipline and bias of the human element. One simply has to take posting to Wikipedia a lot more seriously then a post to this forum. It is just the ethical thing to do.
Sorry to get off track here guys but I like the idea of Wikipedia, but at the sametime I'm appalled by the many careless and inaccurate postings I've found there. Wikipedia is not MacRumors and as such really requires a different frame of mind when posting/updating there.
Dave
Not to pull this thread way off track here but your attitude is what has turned WikiPedia into the mess it is these days. It is verified information when you have a spec sheet, Cupid information or other data at hand. What you have right now is speculation.
Speculation is fine for this forum, in a nut shell it is what the whole web site is all about. Wikipedia is not about speculation or even personal opinion, it is an interesting approach to a collective encyclopedia. A place for facts.
Due to it's nature Wikipedia will never be perfect but it can be a new approach that is better than some of the older resources. The problem is it requires that people post/update responsibly. It is not the malicious poster that will harm the wiki but rather those with good intentions, but poor grasp of the facts or the ability to express them that will sink Wikipedia.
In some ways Wikipedia is a stroke of genius as an idea. What hasn't been resolved is dealling with the discipline and bias of the human element. One simply has to take posting to Wikipedia a lot more seriously then a post to this forum. It is just the ethical thing to do.
Sorry to get off track here guys but I like the idea of Wikipedia, but at the sametime I'm appalled by the many careless and inaccurate postings I've found there. Wikipedia is not MacRumors and as such really requires a different frame of mind when posting/updating there.
Dave
This is awesome! if I was in the market for a new macbook right now Id get it. The unibody macbooks need to be improved now, the low end unibody seems a bit of a rip off at the moment
Given that its advertising, everything will always be twisted to show that you can't purchase a Mac but there is a PC available. Be it price, screen size, installed RAM, processor speed, lack of a fingerprint reader, whatever. Apple is not above doing the same thing, BTW.The very first commercial referenced the white MacBook. The girl said that for under $1000, there was only one machine, and it only had a 13 inch screen, and she needed something bigger. So cool your blood down, man.
I wonder if this includes the weird No Sleeping Bug I've found in my white 2.0 C2D macbook since updating to 10.5.7 forcing endless hard reboots. Which as fate would have it is just starting to happen to my flatmates C2D 2.1 white macbook (both the intel GPU chipset) which was just updated to 10.5.7 too.
Gonna try a clean install at some point because every other trick to solve this problem has been fruitless
Nice little sneaky update though, but the base model still hasn't really changed that much in nearly two years.
Gonna try a clean install at some point because every other trick to solve this problem has been fruitless
Nice little sneaky update though, but the base model still hasn't really changed that much in nearly two years.
Finally! VT-x support!!!
Preface/Disclaimer - My post presupposes that the May 2009 Whitebook does indeed use the Intel SL9600 or some processor that does have VT-x enabled.
If important to you, verify my assumptions first.
A HUGE improvement (although nearly hidden from most) over the last (2.0) Whitebook!
What is it you ask?
Unlike the last 2.0 CPU (P7350), this one 2.13 (SL9600 ?) has VT-x enabled on the CPU.
This means that anyone who must use Windows 7 and use the virtual Windows XP SP3 (free download) will now be able to make it work.
Parallels (and the like) don't need VT-x on chip to work, but the "geniuses" at Microsoft bought a virtual tech company who's virtual engine does.
The catch is that many Intel CPU's have this disabled in hardware, with no chance of making it work.
P7350
SL9600
So, who is this going to help?
Anybody who has a program or utility or driver that does work in XP, but won't work in Vista or Windows 7.
I'm in that group, having a wide carriage (13 x 19 in) HP printer that HP never thought to fully support under Vista.
Others may have even more compelling reasons, yet still want to switch/try an Apple Mac.
Preface/Disclaimer - My post presupposes that the May 2009 Whitebook does indeed use the Intel SL9600 or some processor that does have VT-x enabled.
If important to you, verify my assumptions first.
A HUGE improvement (although nearly hidden from most) over the last (2.0) Whitebook!
What is it you ask?
Unlike the last 2.0 CPU (P7350), this one 2.13 (SL9600 ?) has VT-x enabled on the CPU.
This means that anyone who must use Windows 7 and use the virtual Windows XP SP3 (free download) will now be able to make it work.
Parallels (and the like) don't need VT-x on chip to work, but the "geniuses" at Microsoft bought a virtual tech company who's virtual engine does.
The catch is that many Intel CPU's have this disabled in hardware, with no chance of making it work.
P7350
SL9600
So, who is this going to help?
Anybody who has a program or utility or driver that does work in XP, but won't work in Vista or Windows 7.
I'm in that group, having a wide carriage (13 x 19 in) HP printer that HP never thought to fully support under Vista.
Others may have even more compelling reasons, yet still want to switch/try an Apple Mac.
PVC = Poly Vynil Chloride I belive.
As to the environment I don't think anybody has reallly studied the impact that a plastic laptop enclosure has vs an Aluminum. If such a study was done I think many people would be surprised.
I'm actually hoping that the Aluminum Mac Book sales are marginal and that Apple is getting the feedback indicating that Firewire is very important on these machines. Being a recent returnee to the Mac fold I'm very please with the performance and behaviour of Firewire. Honestly I hope that Apple continues to support and update it well into the future. Even in the face of USB 3 I would like to see Apple move forward with Firewire. It is a very sound implementation of a serial bus.
Dave
I'm not sure if your mind hasn't been turned to mush by Greenpeace but there is more than one type of "plastic" in this world. Many of them have nothing to do with PVC. In the industry the base material is often called resin generically of which their are thousands of formulations and brands. Some are pretty amazing products that can out perform metals.
As to the environment I don't think anybody has reallly studied the impact that a plastic laptop enclosure has vs an Aluminum. If such a study was done I think many people would be surprised.
I'm actually hoping that the Aluminum Mac Book sales are marginal and that Apple is getting the feedback indicating that Firewire is very important on these machines. Being a recent returnee to the Mac fold I'm very please with the performance and behaviour of Firewire. Honestly I hope that Apple continues to support and update it well into the future. Even in the face of USB 3 I would like to see Apple move forward with Firewire. It is a very sound implementation of a serial bus.
Dave
Some might say getting 9400M graphics in place of GMA was quite a change.
Yeah the improved GPU was nice, slight HD boost, superdrive as standard (about time too), but the processor on the base white macbook went from 2.0 to 2.1 then back down to 2.0 and now bumped again.
Although it seems that when I got my white macbook a year and a half ago it was in hindsight an absolute steal for the price, and there weren't many brand name PC laptops that could match it for price/performance/portability. Whereas the macbook does seem to be a little heavier on the wallet compared to when I got it, still one of the best little notebooks on the market IMHO.
Just don't get me started on the firewire-less unibody
Wish I hadn't forgotten to grab the extra 2 years Applecare before it was too late though
Preface/Disclaimer - My post presupposes that the May 2009 Whitebook does indeed use the Intel SL9600 or some processor that does have VT-x enabled.
If important to you, verify my assumptions first.
A HUGE improvement (although nearly hidden from most) over the last (2.0) Whitebook!
What is it you ask?
Unlike the last 2.0 CPU (P7350), this one 2.13 (SL9600 ?) has VT-x enabled on the CPU.
This means that anyone who must use Windows 7 and use the virtual Windows XP SP3 (free download) will now be able to make it work.
Parallels (and the like) don't need VT-x on chip to work, but the "geniuses" at Microsoft bought a virtual tech company who's virtual engine does.
The catch is that many Intel CPU's have this disabled in hardware, with no chance of making it work.
P7350
SL9600
So, who is this going to help?
Anybody who has a program or utility or driver that does work in XP, but won't work in Vista or Windows 7.
I'm in that group, having a wide carriage (13 x 19 in) HP printer that HP never thought to fully support under Vista.
Others may have even more compelling reasons, yet still want to switch/try an Apple Mac.
The SL series of processors are the more expensive super cool, low-voltage ones used for notebooks like the MBA. There's a 99.9% chance it's the P7450.
Does it use the SL9600? I was under the impression that it used a 25 W CPU. Or is that the reason for the increased battery life?