Apple Jan. 27 launch event... what will it be?

[Coach McGuirk]

Well, IT is putting a new MBPro on order for me. I was thinking I would get a air but with the MBPro measuring in at .71" thick and the air at .68", I went with more power and retina display of 2800X1800 .

• 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz memory
• 768GB flash storage1
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• Built-in battery (7 hours)

[Jeff Lebowski]

Well, IT is putting a new MBPro on order for me. I was thinking I would get a air but with the MBPro measuring in at .71" thick and the air at .68", I went with more power and retina display of 2800X1800 .

• 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz memory
• 768GB flash storage1
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• Built-in battery (7 hours)

I am ordering at least three. What was the price tag on that configuration?

[Coach McGuirk]

I am ordering at least three. What was the price tag on that configuration?

A measly $3500. 500 for the HD and 200 for the RAM upgrades.

[Maximus]

A measly $3500. 500 for the HD and 200 for the RAM upgrades.

chump change for the dude.

[Uncle Ted]

I am ordering at least three. What was the price tag on that configuration?

Hopefully that order includes one for yourself.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Hopefully that order includes one for yourself.

Nope.

[Shaka]

Did they kill firewire on these new Macbooks? If so that is lame.

[Art Vandelay]

What is the current rumor on the release date for the next iPhone iteration? I'm still rocking the old iPhone 4, and contract is up. It is starting to get a little quirky and I'm wanting to update whenever the 5, 4Gmvp, or whatever name they come up with, comes out.

[Jeff Lebowski]

What is the current rumor on the release date for the next iPhone iteration? I'm still rocking the old iPhone 4, and contract is up. It is starting to get a little quirky and I'm wanting to update whenever the 5, 4Gmvp, or whatever name they come up with, comes out.

Last rumor I heard was Sept/Oct.

[Uncle Ted]

Nope.

JL, it is time to kick the stinkpad habit and join the 21st century. You can still boot Windose on a separate partition or just run the apps you still think you need in VMWare.

[Uncle Ted]

Did they kill firewire on these new Macbooks? If so that is lame.

Yes, I have some mixed feelings about this myself. However, Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 are pretty awesome replacements.

[Shaka]

Yes, I have some mixed feelings about this myself. However, Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 are pretty awesome replacements.

It's tough on us guys who have firewire based peripherals.

[Jeff Lebowski]

JL, it is time to kick the stinkpad habit and join the 21st century. You can still boot Windose on a separate partition or just run the apps you still think you need in VMWare.

But it's a killer stinkpad. Still not quite ready to make the jump.

Speaking of windows emulation, can you give me a quick rundown of the pros/cons of the different options? Our CSR is recommending Boot Camp. He says that you can boot in Windows if you really need speed, or you can run it in virtual mode at a slower speed. Should we pull the trigger?

[Uncle Ted]

But it's a killer stinkpad. Still not quite ready to make the jump.

But this is a killer Macbook...

Apple’s Next Gen MacBook Pro Is the Most Amazing Laptop We’ve Ever Seen

OK—this thing is a space monster. Apple just dropped a Next Gen MacBook Pro with the highest resolution screen in laptop history, and the thinness of the air. Retina Display spewin', HD chewin' supercomputer. This is Apple's crown jewel of computing.

[...]

Give the stinkpad to a grad student and get yourself the new macbook pro. I don't think you will regret it.

Speaking of windows emulation, can you give me a quick rundown of the pros/cons of the different options? Our CSR is recommending Boot Camp. He says that you can boot in Windows if you really need speed, or you can run it in virtual mode at a slower speed. Should we pull the trigger?

For pure speed you will want to use boot camp but, IMO, it is a pain to reboot to run the occasional windose app. Therefore, I just use VMware Fusion which has all the performance I need.

While I haven't tried this yet it is possible to use VMWare with a boot camp partition. Therefore, you would have the best of both worlds. You can run Windows in a VM while in OSX but have the option of booting Windows natively if you need the additional performance.

[Uncle Ted]

It's tough on us guys who have firewire based peripherals.

And us guys that have invested a bit of time reading the firewire spec to develop drivers.