Mac Soda

Tuesday’s Keynote came, and went, giving us a ton of new cool stuff. Mac Soda published its predictions prior to the event: here’s how we did.

MacBook

Enclosure: Despite popular belief, Mac Soda believes that the outside enclosure will not be made of aluminum (UPDATE: 9 to 5 Mac has heard the same thing). Similar to the iMac, we believe that the exterior will be made of black, iPhone-like plastic, but the inside will be made of aluminum. Expect the machine to be slightly thicker than a Firewire port (.5+ inches).

ACTUAL: We misunderstood our source. He told us the MacBooks will be Plastic and Aluminum, and we assumed that he meant the new computers would be both plastic and aluminum on the same computer. As it turned out, the MacBooks did turn out to be plastic and aluminum: just on two separate computers. Since they kept the white MacBook and added an aluminum model, our guy was right, in that the MacBooks were made out of two different materials. We just interpreted it wrong.

Screen: 14 inch, 16:9, LED display, with an iSight camera with improved quality at the top. 

ACTUAL: 13 inch, LED, with the same iSight camera at the top. I’m not sure if its 16:9 or not, but from the looks of it, its not.

Keyboard: Chicklet keyboard, similar to the one it currently has, but backlit (more like the MacBook Air’s).

ACTUAL: What we predicted, except the low-end isn’t backlit.

Trackpad: Glass! More advanced gestures.

ACTUAL: Exactly as we said.

Processor: The processor will be from the Centrino 2 family. Expect 2.1-2.4 GHZ speeds, but improved battery life to go with it.

ACTUAL: Yup, but it starts at 2.0 GHZ, not 2.1.

RAM: Up to 4 GB.

ACTUAL: Yes.

Graphics Card: As reported first by Mac Soda, the MacBook will replace Intel’s integrated graphics card with nVIDIA’s chipset. Read more about it here.

ACTUAL: We nailed this one.

Ports: MagSafe, Ethernet, two USB ports, mini-DVI, audio in/out, Kensington slot.

ACTUAL: Yes, except for mini-DVI. We got a tip from someone telling us it would be Displayport, but after the iLife/iWork fiasco, we didn’t post it. Turns out he was right.

Optical Drive: Expect an updated Superdrive, with support for Blu-Ray.

ACTUAL: Darn. Turns out Steve wants Blu-Ray in the MacBooks, but the licensing is messed up. What a bag of hurt…

Bonus Goodies: Possibly a smaller power adapter.

ACTUAL: Nope.

Price: As we predicted earlier, expect the MacBook to drop fairly significantly in price. We are expecting a 300-400 dollar price cut, pricing the MacBook at 699-799 for the base model.

ACTUAL: Ummm… yeah. Turns out our speculation was way off. While this Brick-technology will turn out to drive prices down in the long run, it appears Apple decided not to tap into their cash reserves for this. We did see the MacBook Plastic stay for 999, although they really should have dropped that to 799, at most.

MacBook Pro

Enclosure: All aluminum, all the way around, like it is today. It will be about the same thickness as the MacBook (.5 inches+).

ACTUAL: Yes to aluminum, no to thickness. Its a tad chunkier than we anticipated.

Screen: 16 inch, 16:9, LED, iSight for the base, and 18 inch, 16:9, LED, iSight for the top model.

ACTUAL: 15 inch, LED, iSight. Amazingly enough, and I still am in awe regarding this, the 17 inch model wasn’t updated. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?

Keyboard: Chicklet keyboard, backlit.

ACTUAL: Uh-huh.

Trackpad: Glass. Advanced gestures.

ACTUAL: Bingo!

Processor: Centrino 2 family, up to 3 GHZ, Quad Core offered, improved battery life for all models but Quad Core.

ACTUAL: No Quad-Core, probably because the 17 inch didn’t get updated.

RAM: We anticipate that the MBPs will allow for up to 8 GB of RAM. 

ACTUAL: Darn. 4 GB tops. However, perhaps the 17 inch model would’ve enabled 8 GB.

Graphics Card: In order to please video professionals like myself, Apple will definitely offer a better graphics card than they do now. We have not heard exactly which cards they will offer.

ACTUAL: They sure offered a better card! While we knew it would be nVIDIA, we didn’t know just how good it would be: turns out, it was the same card + a better one to go with it.

Ports: ExpressCard/34, audio in/out, mini-DVI, two USB, FireWire 800, Ethernet.

ACTUAL: Yes, except Displayport (see MacBooks).

Optical Drive: SuperDrive updated to Blu-Ray!

ACTUAL: Bag of Hurt!

Bonus Goodies: The obnoxious latch the MacBook Pro has now will be replaced, as will the denting power button. The sound quality will be improved greatly, as Steve has been obsessing over sound lately. Potentially a new Firewire standard.

ACTUAL: Yes to all, but the new Firewire standard.

Price: While I wouldn’t be surprised if the price stayed the same, I believe that the MacBook Pro will boast a 1799 starting price.

ACTUAL: I’m not surprised. 1999 it is. If you consider the MacBook a mini-MBP, then the price dropped 700 dollars. Perhaps we were right after all…

MacBook Air:

Enclosure: Same as it is now. If it changes, I would be very surprised.

ACTUAL: Yah.

Screen: Same.

ACTUAL: Uh-huh.

Keyboard: Same.

ACTUAL: Yeppers.

Trackpad: Glass. More advanced Gestures.

ACTUAL: No. Looks like they decided to keep it the same.

Processor: A better, more efficient, 45 nm, faster, processor will be added to the air.

ACTUAL: Exactly.

RAM: 4 GB.

ACTUAL: Yes.

Graphics Card: Not much improvement, if any.

ACTUAL: Don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote this, but we saw a fairly substantial improvement.

Hard Drive: Bigger, and cheaper.

ACTUAL: Yes and Yes.

Optical Drive: Nowhere to be seen!

ACTUAL: Duh…

Bonus Goodies: Can’t really think of any…

ACTUAL: There weren’t any…

Price: 1499 (or cheaper).

ACTUAL: Same. Weird…

iLife + iWork

See here.

ACTUAL: See here.

BONUS: 24 inch Display.

If you add up how many we got right, how many we got wrong, and take a percentage, we got 46/65 of our predictions right for the event, which is equal to a 70 percent. Not stellar, but not bad.