MacWorld Shopping List – How Exciting
I "listened" to the MacWorld keynote today on IRC chat and was very happy to see that iLife and iWork got significant upgrades. I'm sure we'll be getting the Family Pack for iLife as the kids will all enjoy the additions to iMovie and iPhoto, and I will certainly enjoy having the additional features and graphs in iWork and Numbers. Great work, Apple.
Then we got to the cool stuff for me - the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. True, it's not a quad-core like I've been asking for, but I think in their plans, it never will be. The addition of OpenCL in Snow Leopard is going to make the use of one of the two GPUs for computing far better than an additional two cores in the CPU. I'm guessing the GPUs have on the order of 20 to 40 cores, and that, coupled with the OpenCL, is going to make the machines really scream.
What I may need to do is to focus on programming for OpenCL and the GPUs and in that way take maximal advantage of the machine, but even so, the machine is a nice one - fast CPU with 8GB RAM, and matte screen... with a fast hard drive, and up to 8 hours of battery life. I'm not upset about the loss of the replaceable battery - it's understandable why they did it. I haven't replaced the one in my 17-inch MacBook Pro yet, and it's fine. If it ever does need replacing, then it's time to go to the Apple Store and let them swap it out.
In general, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is everything I'm looking for. It will be shipping at the end of this month, and unfortunately, cost a boat-load of dough. But good things cost. And if my current laptop is any indication, then the new one will last me several years. Excellent.