Oh dear. New MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Like a fish out of water, for all of a few milliseconds.

I would love to bring my iMac home with me for use in the evening / weekend.

That new display must be truly something at that size.

No 13" with Retina

The 15" is a bit big for my modest needs, not to mention the cost.

I only hope they'll bring the 13" with retina once everyone spends large on the must-have 15".

They took winkyincanada's 17 inch away!

Tony -

James L - the talk is the chips needed for the Retina means more heat, and that the 13 inch models will have the display once a cooler running set is available.

Cheers,

OW

Thanks OW.

I wondered if there were a technical reason for the no-show on the 13 retina but then again the ipad retina is out and I would have thought the heat from a 15" display would have been more than a 13?

Excuse my ignorance but is there a difference in pixel numbers per millimetre (for want of a better technical term) between the retina panels?

Yeah, but I'm not bothered. The new display will be pretty sweet.

James L,

I forgot the batteries ; they are larger in the new line 15" - the Retina iPad is thicker because of the juice required. The SuperDrive has been removed, so space there; the same can be done re the 13'' MBP, but not much can be removed from the MacBook Airs. Maybe the initial space + SuperDrive is enough for the 15'', but not quite there re the 13". Then again, it could just be marketing, or the display manufacturer(s) only having the capacity to deal with the 15" at present...

It appears:

The memory is soldered, i.e. no buying cheaper RAM elsewhere,

Storage like the MacBook Air - third parties to offer upgrades? They do for the Air,

Adapter required for Ethernet - through one of the Thunderbolt ports, and

Audio in/out now through the headphone port.

The ppi figures I can find re the Retina models are; iPhone/iPod Touch = 326 ppi, iPad = 264 ppi, and MacBook Pro = 220 ppi.

No expert, just regurgitating.

Cheers,

OW

Hmm - some food for thought here. My Powermac G5 is getting a bit long in the tooth and has stopped sleeping so these are coming at just the right time 

Tony,

You'll find a MacBook Pro a doddle. I've had one now for a couple of years and haven't regretted it. They are very intuitive to use. Even my technophobe wife can use it. I have the 15" model which is perfect, especially with my ageing eyes but the price of the new retina display model means I won't be upgrading mine for a while. Too many LP's to buy + the new DR upgrades to fund.

ATB

Steve

Right, 'just in case' I need an optical drive, I'm going to buy an external cd/dvd burner. Does anyone have any recommendations that won't cause problems with a MacBook?

Tony

We bought the proprietary Apple one when we got our new Mini. It seems a good one. Matches the look, too.

Thanks. I might as well go with that, and yes it looks cool. I'll visit the Cambridge Apple shop tomorrow afternoon and see if they've any skins in stock yet. Then it'll be a bag that doesn't attract attention. A USB 3.0 card reader is on its way now. Hmm, anything else....?

Tony

It has been to Warsaw and Cologne too now. I'll assume that the import scan being carried out in Cologne means its free to roam around Europe and might well be on a lorry. Tick tick tick. 

Tony

If it is on a lorry it will not move until Monday morning

Blimey, another flight:

Tony

Wahoo!!

Tony, you should be unpacking it by now?

Shame about the out-board optical drive being required.

Another thing the schlep round when the Mac Book is on the road with me.

I think I'll run my current MBP into the ground.

I'm at work so I'll have to be patient. Thankfully, I've not a jot of Mac legacy, so no problems for me. 

Tony

Well, I arrived home at 6.15 and here I am posting. This screen is beautiful.....

Tony

Saw one at the Apple Store for the first time yesterday afternoon. The display was indeed beautiful. Quite a machine.

A quick tip from me for anyone that buys a MBPS Retina: go here 

http://m.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=22730

and follow the instructions. Mine runs at a true 2880x1800 now, rather than the 1440x900 that the machine is set to from the factory. 

Tony