MacBook Pro 17-inch unibody unboxing and hands-on

Now this is more like it. Our favorite dude in the world (AKA the FedEx guy) just dropped this slab of nasty Apple magic on our doorstep. Not only is this system kitted out with a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and a 2.93GHz CPU, but the screen is — yes — anti-glare. We’re actually kind of stoked to put this one through its paces and see just exactly what it feels like (since we’ve already seen the other two new unibody models). And of course, we’re very eager to know just how robust that non-removable battery really is. So we’ll be covering the 17-incher a little more in-depth in the coming days, but for now, get a load of the unboxing.

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MacBook Pro 17-inch unibody unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Macbook Pro 17 inch Unboxing

Fresh out of the box.JPG

It’s been delayed for over two months now, but the new MBP 17s are slowly trickling into retail stores, for those who have been waiting patiently. Ours arrived this morning, and we thought it’d be nice to put up some unboxing pics for your viewing pleasure. We also have the Apple Macbook Pro 15-inch and the 13-inch in-house, which makes for some nice side-by-side action.

Check out the pics after the jump.

MCE’s OptiBay exchanges unibody MacBook optical drive for HDD

As we’ve seen with the MacBook Air, Apple clearly feels there are a select group of you out there who can live without an optical drive on your laptop. Now, MCE is giving you unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro owners a similar option. The OptiBay is essentially a second hard drive that is installed internally in place of the optical disc drive, giving MB and MBP users the ability to vastly increase their storage space or tap into a RAID setup. The company has announced that said solution is shipping today to those interested, with options including 250GB, 320GB and 500GB drives. Oh, and if you’re worried about that optical drive you’ll be removing, fret not — these guys have a nifty external enclosure designed specifically to give it another home. How quaint.

[Via Macworld]

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MCE’s OptiBay exchanges unibody MacBook optical drive for HDD originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My Final Gadget Will and Testament

I, Mark Wilson, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do declare this to be my last gadget Will.

While at the time of this writing, I am a spry (OK, a bit soft) 26-year-old man, I realize that I could, at any moment in time, die. In such an unfortunate circumstance, should the world ever recover from its loss, I’d like my most important possessions (my gadgets and digital media) to be well-tended pending their obsolescence (two or three months from now).

I will, give, and bequeath unto the persons named below, if he or she survives me, the Property described below:

My iPhone

Pending that my iPhone 3G was not crushed by whatever huge boulder must have smashed me, I would like to leave it to someone very special in my life. My wife Elizabeth, a long time iPhone hater, recently admitted that she was wrong in denouncing the phone and purchasing a Blackberry Pearl instead. I know she would really, really enjoy having my iPhone.

Too late, sweetie! Your penance were not adequate. My iPhone should go to an underprivileged child who is resourceful enough to pay a $100/month subscription even though they haven’t shoes on their feet. Actually, publicize the donation and guilt AT&T and/or Apple into picking up the tab. It’ll help if the child can’t read.

My Flickr Account

You can’t give thousands of pretentious sepia photos to just anyone. No, these all go to the Art Institute of Chicago. May they reconsider my genius when macro photography of mundane objects constitutes an artistic revolution, or when there’s finally a wing dedicated to LOLCatz.

My Plasma TV and Home Theater Accessories

The 46-inch Samsung plasma should be placed in my building’s workout room where, as of now, some devil has placed two crappy 13-inch LCDs under the guise that anyone can actually see those things. My TV now belongs to the condo association, pending that neither ESPN nor ESPN2 can ever be watched on it.

My Tangled Box of Cords

Everyone has an obnoxious, tangled box of various cords, and I was no exception. I hated this box, but found it a necessity in the mortal world. Now that I have transcended to a higher plane of existence (hopefully involving wireless HDMI and unlimited refills at a peach margarita machine), I leave this box to the last person who wronged me in life. Whoever that may be, I fucking hate you and my grudge will be eternal, just like that knot of cords.

My Xbox 360 and Games

OK, now this was a tough one. Who gets all the games, the controllers and the overpriced Wi-Fi dongle? Humanity, that’s who. And my gamer points go to Adam Frucci, the only guy who I know with less Live street cred than me. Well, him or my mom. Figure it out, lawyers. This point might go to trial.

My Wii

Sell it on eBay. I wouldn’t subject anyone I love to dealing with the horrors of the current Wiimote. If eBay has gone bankrupt, the lawyer has been instructed to bury the system in a time capsule until Wii MotionPlus comes out. If there’s a decent amount of game support (I’m talking games with headshots and blood, people), it should go to my two adorable nieces to aid in their development.

My PS3

Hahahahahaha. I mean, whoever will take this can have it! Hahahahahaha. Really though, in ten years, everyone will have them…pfft…hahahahhahahaha. Oh man, I’m funny even when dead.

My Low Digit ICQ Number

Mom, I know this has been hard for you, especially as you have no one to turn to regarding all things tech. No problem. You can have my five-digit ICQ number. (I realize you have no clue what that means.) It’s OK. Walk into any chatroom with that and, trust me, 87264829 isn’t giving you any shit, ever. You rule the internet now. Go forth and crush the opposition.

My MacBook Pro

Ahh, the MacBook Pro, the center of my digital life. That’s why you’re all here, isn’t it? Well, of course my darling wife Elizabeth receives it. With some provisions:

Always wash your hands before using. Before you turn it on, say three Hail Maries with “Steve” replaced for “Mary.” No Boot Camping Vista, but Win 7 is fine. No watching YouTube clips where kids light their own farts on the screen. No chatting with other men on it. Don’t worry about webcam restrictions, I’ve taken the liberty of breaking the iSight for you.

It should be noted that there is a lot of important media saved on the hard drive that represents not only my musical preferences but snippets of our life together. You are now the owner of all MP3s, photos, animated GIFs (this is a big score, honey), and videos.

On the condition that you never delete my Springsteen collection, as low as you may be on space, it’s all yours. The computer is out in the hall. Please go claim it now. Mom? Sis? You can go with and help.

[They should leave the room.]

OK, Jason Chen. Quick. The MacBook is under your seat. I need you to delete some files. Go to my hard drive. Open “Applications.” Open “System Files” folder. Open “DO NOT OPEN OR COMPUTER WILL MELT” folder. Open “I’M NOT JOKING.” Open “SEARS CATALOG BABES WINTER 2002-2008.” Select all files. If you have time, you can copy these to the external drive you were instructed to bring with in a past email. If not, select all and delete. Then empty trash. Thanks buddy. You’re a true friend.

Oh, and to everyone. Don’t mourn my passing. Remember, I’m not dead. My crippled body is merely frozen. When I awake from my long winter slumber, I’ll be totally cured of ailments and donning a 7-foot titanium robot body complete with laser Gatlings and a turbo orgasm button. So don’t feel sorry for Mark. That guy’s doing just fine.

Well, that, or the cryogensis freezer failed, I was wrong about Christianity being fake and I’m burning through eternity in some poorly ventilated internet cafe that only has dial-up.

17-inch unibody MacBook Pro gets disassembled, examined

The battery on the now-shipping 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro may not be removable for average, warranty-abiding users, but that didn’t stop the folks at iFixit from removing it and just about everything else that isn’t soldered on. As you might expect, however, apart from that over-sized battery, the internals aren’t too different from the 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro, although the 17-incher unsurprisingly has a pair of noticeably larger fans to keep everything cool, and iFixit describes the component density as “amazing.” Hit up the link below for the complete teardown, and try your best not to imagine a matte black MacBook Pro after catching sight of that battery.

[Via Mac Rumors]

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17-inch unibody MacBook Pro gets disassembled, examined originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro gets unboxed

We had heard that quite a few early birds were receiving shipping notifications, and sure enough, Apple’s 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro has left the docks. One proud owner has even taken the time to host up a handful of unboxing shots as proof, and while nothing here is out of the ordinary for those acquainted with Apple’s newest 15-incher, the actual machine just looks a touch longer and wider for some reason. Maybe it’s just our eyes.

[Thanks, Derek and Michael]

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Apple’s 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro gets unboxed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Birth of an Apple Product, Behind the Scenes

Jonathan%20Ives.%202jpg

Jonathan Ives, Apple designer; thanks to Gizmodo for the image

We all know that Apple designers have it pretty rough under the watchful eye of Steve Jobs, but what steps do they actually have to go through to get these products finalized? BusinessWeek interviewed Michael Lopp, Senior engineering manager at Apple,and he gives a pretty in-depth overview of the rigorous design process that goes on at Apple.

1. Perfect mockups. Yeah, there aren’t any functional parts in these products, but the fake stuff has to be as genuine as the finalized ones. That probably means working apps, no buttons falling off, perfect measurements, and so on.

17-inch MacBook Pro delayed two weeks

Bad news for those of you waiting on pins and needles for the 17-inch MacBook Pro — it’s been delayed to at least February 19th. According to an email Apple’s sending to pre-order customers, “wrapping up the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is taking a few days longer than we projected,” and orders won’t ship for another two weeks. Guess cramming all that fancy new sealed battery tech in that new unibody enclosure wasn’t so easy, now was it? Full text of the email after the break.

[Thanks, Roy]

Continue reading 17-inch MacBook Pro delayed two weeks

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17-inch MacBook Pro delayed two weeks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Laptop display comparison awards top marks to Lenovo

It’s not exactly the most extensive round-up, but photographers looking for suggestions on a laptop to pair up with their DSLR would do well to check out Rob Galgraith’s latest comparison, which takes a look at the late-2008 MacBook Pro, the Dell Mini 9, and a pair of Lenovos (the W700 and T60). Not so surprisingly, he didn’t have too much positive to say about the MacBook’s switch to a glossy-only display, but other than that, he found that it mostly held up against its predecessor. It apparently wasn’t able to match up against the two Lenovo offerings, however, which came in at number one and two in both color accuracy and viewing angle tests. The W700, in particular, proved to have color accuracy “on par with a fine desktop display,” a feat enabled in no small part by its built-in calibrator. He was also especially impressed by the Dell Mini 9, which actually beat out the MacBook in terms of color accuracy, but fell a bit short in viewing angle tests. The fact that it also fits nicely in a DSLR bag certainly doesn’t hurt things either. Hit up the link below for the complete breakdown.

[Via thegadgetsite]

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Laptop display comparison awards top marks to Lenovo originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warning: 10.5.6 MacBooks May Freeze After Jailbreaking iPhone 3G

This weekend, I learned the hard way that trying to jailbreak an iPhone 3G using a MacBook running 10.5.6 can totally freeze up the machine later on. Here are the specifics: UPDATED

Short version: Be careful with that latest QuickTime update if you have run any “DFU fix” Automator scripts on your unibody (Late 2008) MacBook or MacBook Pro. Do not upgrade to QuickTime 7.6 until you’ve repaired the alterations that the script made to your system. UPDATE: I am learning from commenters that this is not just limited to unibody Late ’08 MacBooks, but it applies to ALL MacBooks running 10.5.6.

In this post, we outlined how to re-enable unlocking and jailbreaking functionality if you’ve upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5.6. To do it, you have to run an Automator script that “fixes” the system so that you can enter something called DFU mode. It’s some hardcore juju, but the script seemed easy enough to run and reboot.

The now-mysteriously-missing original Hackintosh article mentioned that there were some issues with the unibody MacBook and MacBook Pros, but it never said that you should undo it after you finish jailbreaking.

I didn’t even get the jailbreak itself to work on that machine in the end, even though Jason did on his unibody MacBook Pro, but the Automator DFU fix didn’t cause any perceptible changes to my system’s behavior, so I promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward two weeks. I get a notice of the latest QuickTime upgrade, so I OK it. When my system restarts, I have no access to keyboard or trackpad. Not only do I not have access, I can’t even plug in a mouse or keyboard. I could use those controls when booting off of a system install disc, but I couldn’t get the installer to repair my OS, since it was “newer.” The computer was borked.

My solution was easy but nuclear: I turned an external 320GB drive into a boot disk, ran the migration tool to move every bit of data from my unibody MBP, then simply swapped drives. (Gotta hand it to Apple for that new swappable-drive design.) My machine is as good as new, and now totally up to date.

What you should do, if you already ran the DFU script and haven’t installed that QuickTime update yet, is try the method I have since discovered outlined in this Apple Support thread. Apparently, I’m not the only one with this problem.

Here are a few solutions besides the one in the support thread:

• If you still have access to your keyboard and mouse, you can copy the backup files (it should be under Backup_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_6 on your desktop) to where the Automator script was, Install_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_5 on your desktop. Then, just run the Automator script again, and it will copy those “original” files to the right location, then change the permissions correctly and reboot your machine.

• If you already ran the QuickTime update and you’re unable to access any input (USB or otherwise), you can SSH into your machine and run these commands one by one. If you had trouble with the Automator script, you can open up the terminal and do this too, manually. Note, some of these lines are too long, so they wrap to 2 lines. Make sure you copy it in its entirety. Commands are separated by empty lines in between.

sudo rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext
You’ll have to enter your administrator password here

sudo rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

sudo cp -R $HOME/Desktop/Backup_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_6/AppleUSBHub.kext /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/

sudo cp -R $HOME/Desktop/Backup_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_6/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

sudo reboot

Your machine will reboot after prompting to update boot caches, and the files should be back to the standard 10.5.6 ones. Good luck!