reviews.digitaltrends.com — "The MacBook effectively defies it's own ancestry and surpasses all anticipated performance levels for a sub-14" laptop. It has even outclassed the MacBook Pro on more than one occasion. Best of all, the MacBook is one of the most affordable high-performance laptops on the market today. "
Jun 13, 2006 View in Crawl 4
purposelessJun 14, 2006
As good as this laptop could be, its been quite the disaster for purchasers. Overheats. Stains. God knows what else is coming. Not a recommended buy until rev 2, or perhaps ever.
streakJun 14, 2006
@Roscoe1976, please stop trying to obfuscate. I didn't mention anything about the computer Rose uses, but now that you mention it, of course the gift of a computer could influence one's actions and opinions and should be disclaimed. Your expression of "under their thumb" indicates you do see some potential for bias. What I suggested earlier is that if Rose (or anyone) owned Apple stock, it could influence their decisions. Does that somehow introduce a more tangible bias (or potential for bias) in your opinion?I didn't state that linking to shopping.com is deceitful. (Is that your feeling?) I don't even see a link to shopping.com in the review, do you? I've been referring to the list of "Where to buy" links adjacent to the Digital Trends review score. The links look helpful, with the prices even shown, but they contain personal identifiers for providing a kickback. None of the listed links provided in the review is even in the class of a comparison site like shopping.com or pricegrabber.com.Now then, how about removing those identifiers?? before the posting leaves the front page.
hayden_evansJun 14, 2006
oh yeah and he's back on a mac now, and not going back.
electrobotJun 14, 2006
I agree with you that the review is weak (He mentions that the GPU isn't for gaming yet he doesn't list it as a con).On the other hand, what Apple apps aren't supported on the MacBook? (BTW Aperature and Final Cut Pro aren't consumer products)What do you need an expansion slot for? The MacBook has USB 2.0, Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, Airport Extreme 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, integrated VGA webcam, analog/digital in/out audio, up to 120GB serial-ATA hard drive, CD burner or DVD burner, up to 2GB RAM and video spanning/mirroring with DVI/VGA/S-Video/RCA outputs. This is a consumer laptop not a prosumer/professional one. It doesn't need Firewire 800 or dual-DVI. You can get a flash card reader with all the formats for around $20 (instead of just SD or Compact Flash like some laptops have). EVDO USB cards are available in Australia and some of Asia, and should be in the US/UK/Canada within the next year. There really isn't a need for expansion slots (PCMCIA, Expresscard /34 or /54) with a laptop that has this many features and almost all available expansion ports.
poofyhairguyJun 14, 2006
As a Macbook owner from the day it was released in stores, I want to address the heat issue.Does the Macbook get warm with normal use? Yes.Does the Macbook ever get so hot that it would actually burn someone? No.After a few weeks of use I have found the real issue at hand- the fans almost never run. With the Macbook the fans don't run until the CPU gets over 70 C. The problem is that when the CPU gets over 62 C (which happens even when you just browse the web) it gets kinda uncomfortable for laptop use. All of the heat is within reasonable bounds, it just that Apple made a decision (and made quietness more important than lap use) that many of its users do not agree with.I have found my own solution to this problem until the eventual $50 app that lets you control at what temp the fans come on appears: start the Chess program and make it play a game against itself. Within a second the CPU will be maxed out and the fans will start blasting. Stop the game and the fans will continue to blast for a few more seconds. At the end of all of this the underside of your Macbook will then be room temp. The heat is not really an "issue." The issue is that people want to put what two years ago would have been an extremely high end CPU on their laps the same way they used to do with far more primative G4s. Apple cannot work magic- they can't make the modern CPUs any less hot. At best they will give a firmware update that will make the fans run more, but then people will complain about the noise (Apple can never win).Just either do my chess trick or buy some sort of lap holder- the heat is not a big deal.Time for this to stop being an issue. Heat might be a really problem with the Macbook Pros, but with Macbooks its not that much of a problem as long as you don't expect too much. I can say this much- I have held the Macbook underside at the hottest it has ever gotten to my skin and I got no burns or anything. Macbooks are safe- time to go buy one!
digidtJun 14, 2006
I suppose if you look past the overheating issues, "whine" problem, palm rest discoloration and cost...the MacBook is almost a good computer (if you put Windows XP on it).no digg
brandonkingJun 16, 2006
Wow, I missed all this ridiculous chatter. I do reviews for DT as well, and no we don't individually get kickbacks for a specific review. Like any self sustaining site, we have to generate revenue. The best way to do that, at least now, it through advertising. You'll notice the same advertising whether the product gets a 3/10 or a 10/10, so it is NOT biased. How is this bad? If you like the review and want to buy the product, you can click on a link. Or you can do your own research, play with your own price search engines, etc. It's not like reading the reivew causes money to fall out of the sky above our headquarters. I'm sorry. Did I miss some big revolution in internet business revenue where this wasn't the standard way to do things? How else are people making a living and paying for offices, etc? Oh, and do not count VC capital, since that is temporary. Oh, we could accept money from the companies whose products we are reviewing... oh wait. Now THAT is a biased review. Hell, this Digg page is surrounded by ads for laptops. OMG! Digg can't be trusted since it is getting a kickback for just posting this story! Sorry folks. There's no conspiracy here. Move along.