Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Care to divulge the MC location? em
My MBP, Rev B of the Core Duos, gets very hot. Even with a little rubber stand providing airflow underneath, I've been measuring CPU temps over 150 degrees F. A couple of days ago, I fished out a small metal baking rack from my oven drawer and placed the MBP on it for a compare and contrast experiment.
Now consistently running under 130 degrees F. Something to be said for the heat transferring properties of metal?
Yup, lango, this gives me a sinking feeling after so many years of selling Macs. Kind of a Cube or a Rev A G5 iMac redux...I hope not.
Sometimes someone at Apple's business plan is simply "Ship it now, fix it later." A full employment policy for our techs.
It wouldn't have hurt either to give it another 6 weeks or so and ship it with a Leopard upgrade coupon. Lots of my customers will wait it out for that $129 savings.
P.S. - Have I mentioned how jarring the keyboard and mouse look? Are you listening, Jonathan?
FWIW - the new iMacs' aluminum case feels about as HOT as my MBP after an hour of use, and much, much hotter than the plastic enclosure on the previous iMacs.
These things are sizzlin'.
We set our first new iMac today. Received 4 of the $1499 and 2 of the $1199 models.
Most people think it's way kewl. Not I. Guess I just don't like shiny things. The display looks better if you change the profile to RGB instead of the default iMac profile. The keyboard is sooo small that even my little hands don't know where to rest. Oh, and the mouse with the floor unit SQUEAKS. Yes, a squeaky mouse.
Events in iPhoto is really nice. Haven't had time to explore the new improved iMovie.
Those are the Santa Rosa chips now found in the new MBPs, with an 800Mhz frontside bus, and allowing 4Gb of system RAM.
lango, they cleared our iMac channel a couple of weeks ago. We have only 3 24" whiteMacs. I suspect they'll go down to $1699 in view of the $1799 price on the new ones.
The keyboard/mouse situation is hideous, just as you say. Now splain me this: Why would you not get a numeric keypad on the wireless model?
Someone is jIving us for sure.
tomm, help me understand the keyboard thing. They show 2 models in those photos, one extended (with keypad), one shortie.
Also, if the iMac has gone all non-white, what's with the white keys on the keyboard?
Did someone abduct J. Ive?
Oh, and now we have to say good-bye to the days of $29 Apple keyboards. Back up to $49 we go.
We won't see any new iMacs before Friday at the very earliest, probably next week. No word on model availabilities.
lango, you like black and silver esthetics? Come on down and visit our peecee department.
NOT thinking different.
Better be iMacs. We're down to 1 $999 17" and 1 $1999 24". Consider this channel cleared.
Finally getting a few MBP 15".
15" MBP update. I called one of the local Apple stores last Saturday to discover they had "plenty" of both models on hand...this while you have to wait weeks to get one from the online store.
We got 4 of the 2.4GHz models yesterday, drop shipped. Still no 2.2GHz models.
I don't know whether the retail stores have had shortages in recent weeks, but it appears that they do get top priority for supply.
We have to conclude that supply has nowhere near met demand since the new models were announced a couple of months ago.
yof, I want one of those speakers. How do you buy them?
p.s. - psst, iMac eol
The least-mentioned news finally gets mentioned. The iPhone hoopla was useful in masking this potential disaster.
I'm increasingly convinced that the LED is the root of the problem. Our floor unit, the 15" 2.4GHz model, has started showing a dismaying symptom. The screen rapidly flashes on and off when the screen saver tries to launch. Going into System Preferences/Desktop/Screen Saver to turn off the screen saver causes Sys Prefs to crash. Our solution has been to turn Energy Saver on to sleep before the Screen Saver tries to kick in.
It was pretty spooky watching that beautiful screen burping from across the room.
We'll probably try a full restore, but I somehow don't think that will fix it.
Yofie, I tried to go to the iPhone haters page, but our net nanny said "non!":
"Your organization's Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.
Reason:
The Websense category "Tasteless" is filtered."
Tex, the 15" MBPs ARE LED models. That's why I suspect the LED is the problem. The 17" MBPs do not have the LED screen and are not constrained.
Just my tea leaves speaking here.
Tex, 7-10 days shipping means they are NOT available...and haven't been for several weeks. It means they are not available through any source if you can't get them directly from Apple. Anyone who says they can ship immediately must have some of the first-run units left over. I have special orders in directly to Apple, and they have delayed shipment week after week.
All other products are shipping freely. We have everything else in stock.
As for the pc5300 so-dimms, we have several brands that have dived in price in the past couple of weeks. We can currently do the upgrade to 4GB for less than $300.
MIA - Have any of you noticed that 15" MacBook Pros haven't been shipping for a month or so now? The only explanation we've heard is some sort of "production problem." I'm guessing an LED issue because the 17" are flowing freely.
Definitely not helping my sales.
Free the iPhone website and petition now up, sponsored by FreePress:
http://www.freetheiphone.org/
good luck
Online store closed Rocky Mtn time 6:25. Stopped by a local AT&T shop to gawk at the 20+ waiters. One of our former employees was #2 in line, got there at noon. He said the store had about 20 phones. Store employees were still trying to figure out how to display the iPhone accessories 10 minutes before I left at 10 to 6.
OT that moon thing looked rather gorgeous over the Rockies last night. em.
Safari 3 beta installed on work iMac. I don't care how fast it is, it's getting uninstalled tomorrow. If it doesn't work with PithHelmet, it's not getting near any Mac I use.
Gawd, you don't know what the world puts up with until you surf sans PH.
Minimalism is not always user-friendly, especially for those of us who have been on auto-pilot at apple.com for all these many years. How many surfers actually know about site maps?
yeah, I had to find the new login page via site map since they removed the .mac tab from the homepage.
hooboy, dotmac is hosed, temporarily I hope. Tried to log in to my .mac mail and was told my search term was missing. Tried going in from another direction, no way to log in.
Very impressed.
baldrick, have you this touchscreen AIO from HP?
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0258512
We have one on display in our peecee department, and the whole screen is usually covered in nasty fingerprints. yuck.
I wonder what those shiny iPhones will end up looking like after a few minutes of use. Maybe I could invest in a handkerchief manufacturer.
I personally haven't visited an Apple store in months, if not years. I get reports from customers coming into our department. They usually complain, like dilleet, of being ignored by arrogant, younger AS staff.
I don't know anything about their hiring practices re older employees. My own experience as a "mature" woman AS employee was horrible, and that's why I quit after a month with them. My depth of knowledge, experience, and customer-facing skills are much more appreciated and rewarded where I am now.
BTW, it's usually 40+ women who are the most offended by their treatment at the Apple stores. How stupid is that? Those are the visitors most likely arriving ready to buy something.
We're tracking flat-to-slightly-up Y/Y in this slow period of the year. Not too bad when you factor in the recent opening of the 5th Apple retail store in the Front Range/Denver area. We are surrounded but overall holding onto our loyal base, in addition to adding converts from the hustle and bustle and frequent snottiness of the Apple stores (generally older people who appreciate our TLC).
Product availability to us has improved greatly in the past 12-18 months.
BTW, Micro Center opened its 20th store in northern NJ this spring and has leased 3 more former CompUSA locations on the east coast for later expansion. Our very conservative management seems poised to gradually slide into the vacuum left by the exit of Comp and Circuit City in some areas.
We got 2 of the 15" 2.4GHz models today. I set one up, and that screen is most beautimous. em
Compare and contrast -- a customer recently ran into the store to buy a new Apple keyboard. Her old one had been shat upon by her grey African parrot.
There is apparently no known method of removing such substance.
Next Tuesday, I predict MacBook Pro update.
We've been out of them for a couple of weeks. Channel apparently cleared.
MacBook update opinion from the trench:
Processor - okay
RAM - good (but many peecee laptops have standard 2GB)
Hard Drive - better
Retained Combo Drive - stupid
Video shared memory - bad (can't use Aperture, e.g.)
Price - still too high
Overall, a decent upgrade but won't goose sales appreciably.
IMHO
FWIW, a little birdie is chirping in my ear about "announcements," very soon.
'bout time for some hardware refreshing.
OT re Chipotle - They started right here in Denver, and I used to eat at one of their first restaurants across the street from my place.
They were the first semi-fast food joint to announce the use of humanely-raised, gunk-free pork and have constantly worked to use healthier, locally-raised ingredients.
Plus, it's yummy tasty food (although the portions are way too big for me).
We set up an aTV in the department, connected to a big teevee.
I unplug it every night when I close because I'm afraid it might set the place on fire...
Well, I guess I'll have to eat some crow, temporarily at least, regarding my sense that sales would tank after the Leopard delay announcement.
Au contraire, it's been a huge 3 days in the department. Maybe the prospect of waiting tipped some people into figuring that 6 months of Tiger on a new Mac is better than outlasting the mythical spotted cat. Sorta like piercing an abcess.
Just today I did 8 systems (4 20" iMacs, 4 2Ghz white MacBooks), 6 AppleCares, for over $16K. Our $150 rebates on those models are a hit.
I'm tired. G'nite.
lango, I'd rather eat crow than ramen noodles...which is probably what will be on the menu over the coming months.
This is going to slow hardware sales to a crawl. I already have a bunch of Leopard-waiters on the be-back list.
Another concern is this manic focus on the iPhone and the apparent lack of focus on the puters. We need something new around these parts. Even a core 2 Mini would be better than nothing.
I'm personally disappointed in Apple's allocation of its huge resources to one overriding project. They have never taken more than 2 years for an OS X update.
Call me paranoid. Not gonna do it. em.
Back to the ultra-portable topic, AppleInsider weighs in:
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.appleinsider.com%2Farticle.php%3Fid%3D2...
The successor to the PB 2400 is apparently on track for mid-year introduction.
Billy Gates has really lost it:
"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine. So, yes, it took us longer, and they had what we were doing, user interface-wise. Let’s be realistic, who came up with [the] file, edit, view, help [menu bar]? Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16934083/site/newsweek/
Fascinating interview. Apple is lying, lying, lying.
...and democracy is on the march, sez I
OT - The holes in the socks are undoubtedly due to the fact that Wolfowitz doesn't clip his stinking toenails.
Did you see him do the spit and comb thing in Fahreheit 911?