Spoke too soon?

Last week I wrote about my predictions for a holiday refresh to the Apple product lineup and how they fared against reality.

The MacBook Pro part of the refresh will only minimally update the top-tier MBPs with more processing horsepower, maybe a 10-20% increase, and possibly quad-core options on the top-end $2000+ models. The focus is going to be on the low- and mid-end systems, so I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if there was no update at all to the MBPs.

0/2 here, but +1 to overall score for calling no update. I was close on the quad-cores – this update did include quad cores, but for the iMacs, not the MBPs. I should have figured, since no one uses quad-cores in their laptops today, but I was letting my hopes for the update cloud my judgment.

Well, it turns out I might have been less wrong than before! According to 9to5Mac.com, who were rather accurate in their predictions about the latest refresh, Apple may be about to unleash quad-core MacBook Pros after all!

… [W]e’ve heard that Apple Store Geniuses are being trained on new Quad-Core (possibly Core i5 and i7) processor MacBook Pros and they expect to take delivery of the new machines at the same time that the new high-end Core i5 and Core i7 iMacs hit stores in November. That would probably be timed right with a 10.6.2 release.

Apple has traditionally used the same processors in iMacs and high end MacBook/Powerbooks with the exception of the G5 iMac.  iMacs and MacBook Pros were also the first Macs with Intel chips, introduced simultaneously in 2006.

But then there’s this:

We haven’t heard anything about outer design changes which would be unlikely – the current MacBook Pros were updated earlier this year with SD cards and enclosed batteries.  We also expect these things to top out at 8GB of RAM.  The iMacs can go to 16GB but that is with four RAM slots.

Repeat after me Apple: HDMI-out, antiglare standard, and Blu-Ray. Everyone else gets it, why not you?

I know, I know, it will never happen, Apple wants to promote HD downloads, etc. A guy can dream, can’t he?

I wasn’t 100% wrong

About a month ago I posted a prediction over on Brian’s blog at ESPNish, and I’m happy to report that I wasn’t 100% wrong!

I’m predicting the focus here will be on price, unification, price, cashing in on the “halo effect,” price, minor speed updates, and price.

First paragraph, 3/7. Cashing in on the “halo effect” is purely subjective, so you can’t say I’m wrong there (nyah nyah), and there’s no doubt there were speed increases. In fairness, whether those were “minor” or “major” speed increases depends on your POV. There was also a bit of unification (as described below) by bringing the Macbook up to par in some ways with the rest of the family. Unfortunately, I really believed Apple was going to drop some prices seeing as we’re, like, you know, in the middle of the biggest recession in, like, a billion years.

I’m betting on lower price points for the iMac – at least one sub-$1000 price point should be coming. No style changes – they’re going to want to make this look just like the existing systems to keep the idea that it’s a high-end system out there. Minimal changes to the top end, just faster processors and minor tweaks, if anything.

This one is a toughy, but I’m going to give myself 2/3. The style did remain largely unchanged – it was just tweaked a bit, thinned out, with enlarged screens. Definitely bigger additions to processing power than I was expecting. Unfortunately, I was wrong about the price drops again.

Ditto on the MacBook refresh. I’m going with one price point below $1000 (not counting the $999.99 they have today), probably at $699 or $799, with the same basic specs as the 13” has today, but in alumninum. Plastic is history – I’m calling everything going aluminum unibody from here on out, gaining the benefits of the new battery layout, if not reaching that 6-8 hour longevity on the lowest end. It will still have a good battery life, maybe 3-4 hours. This is a gamble, as I think they might have wanted to get this out for the back-to-school season, but continuing economic woes may have forced their hands here.

Ugh. This one I really boned up here. Being generous, I’m giving myself 2/5. I would have sworn Apple would go 100% aluminum here, but I do get keeping the plastics around as a distinguishing feature. At least I got the unibody and battery predictions right! I’m pleased to see Apple claiming a 7 hour battery on this one, too – I’ll be waiting to see full benchmarks in the next few days to see if the reality matches the specs.

The MacBook Pro part of the refresh will only minimally update the top-tier MBPs with more processing horsepower, maybe a 10-20% increase, and possibly quad-core options on the top-end $2000+ models. The focus is going to be on the low- and mid-end systems, so I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if there was no update at all to the MBPs.

0/2 here, but +1 to overall score for calling no update. I was close on the quad-cores – this update did include quad cores, but for the iMacs, not the MBPs. I should have figured, since no one uses quad-cores in their laptops today, but I was letting my hopes for the update cloud my judgment.

That leaves me with 8/17, or 47% accuracy. Not too shabby for a guy whose only Apple product is an iPhone!

As a side note, the Magic Mouse is a very cool idea, and I can’t wait to play with one and see if it’s what I’m looking for. At the very least, it’s cool to note that Apple has come full circle back to a mouse with no buttons!

Honeymoon Gallery

And here’s the honeymoon shots from Nassau, The Bahamas! (click the Read More link to see the gallery if you’re coming from the front page).

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Wedding Gallery

Hello, all!

Here (below the fold) are pictures from all three of our weddings. Some of these are official shots from our amazing photographer, Sarah Edwards; some are from my iPhone, and others are from our Canon PowerShot SD750.

Check them out! If you want to see larger-size ones (suitable for printing) from Sarah, you can get those from her here!

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