Apple launches new MacBooks with blast at Vista

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Posted on 14 Oct 2008 at 18:04

Apple claimed the failure of Vista is one of the main reasons why Mac sales are surging, as the company unveiled its new laptops.

Apple's chief operating officer Tim Cook said the company has been selling Macs at two-to-three times the industry average.

And he pointed to Windows Vista as one of the reasons for Apple's success. "I think it's fair to say Vista hasn't lived up to everything Microsoft hoped it would - and this has given us a door in," Cook told the audience at the launch of the new MacBooks.

Ironically, he also cited the availability of Windows on Macs as another reason for its success, although he couldn't resist another dig at Microsoft. "Windows on an iMac - frankly this sends a shiver up my spine," he said.

New MacBook and MacBook Pros

The company has completely revamped the design of both its MacBook and MacBook Pro ranges. Both now sport Apple's aluminium "Unibody" design, which was widely-trailed before the official announcement. This sees the chassis crafted from a single block of aluminium, which the company claims makes the laptops stronger, whilst reducing their weight.

"Apple has invented a whole new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "And, just as important, they are the industry's greenest notebooks."

Find out why Steve Jobs described Blu-ray as a "bag of hurt" here

The MacBooks also sport new graphics chips from Nvidia. A new integrated part, dubbed the GeForce 9400M, combines a chipset and the GPU on a single die. It contains 16 parallel graphic cores and 54 gigaflops of graphics performance, according to Jobs.

The higher-end 9600M GT has 32 graphics cores, and will be available as an option in the premium MacBook Pro models.

"The new MacBooks offer incredible features our users will love - like their stunning all-metal design, great 3D graphics and LED backlit displays - at prices up to $700 less than before," Jobs claimed.

Glass trackpads

The new MacBook and MacBook Pros also boast a new glass trackpad that completely does away with the buttons and relies on multitouch inputs from one, two, three or even four fingers to control and open applications.

The new trackpad is 40% bigger than before and is designed to make it easier to use gestures such as pinch, rotate and swipe. The associated software will allow users to define gestures that relate to button clicks.

All the ports run down one side of the new MacBook Pro, including a Mini DisplayPort connector that will be built into all new Macs.

The 17in version of the Pro is also specified with a 128GB solid-state drive for the first time, which is accessible from underneath the battery.

The new 13 in MacBook starts from $1,299, while the 15in Pro starts from $1,999. Apple has also knocked $100 off the price off the old plastic MacBook, so that it now retails for $999 - not quite the dramatic price cut that many were predicting.

Fresh Air

The slimline MacBook Air specs have also been updated with the GeForce 9400M graphics mentioned above - although clocked down to prevent overheating issues.