New 17" MacBook Pro!

ByMike Moffit

At Macworld on Tuesday, Phil Schiller introduced a brand-new 17” MacBook Pro. The new MacBook shares the revolutionary aluminum unibody construction offered on the MacBook and 15” MacBook Pro. Other specs:

  • .98 inches thin
  • 6.6 pounds
  • The world’s lightest and thinnest 17-inch notebook
  • Features an LED backlit display, with 1920×1200 resolution. 700:1 contrast ratio, and 60% greater color gamut than the previous 17-inch display.
  • Apple says “This is the best display we’ve ever shipped in a notebook.”
  • 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Dual Core
  • 6MB L2 Cache
  • Up to 8GB memory at 1066 MHz DDR3.
  • Glass trackpad with four-finger gestures and multi-button support.
  • 320GB hard drive
  • Three USB ports
  • Mini DisplayPort for connecting to Apple’s new 24” LED display
  • FireWire 800 (no 400!)
  • Digital audio in/out
  • ExpressCard slot.
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • MagSafe power adapter (duh)
  • Built-in, non user-replaceable battery. This is an adaptive “smart battery” with built-in chips to maintain maximum charge and lifespan
  • The battery can last up to eight hours, is good for about five years, and can be charged 1000 times. It is also fully recyclable.
  • Battery life varies depending on graphics card used. With the 9600GT, battery life if seven hours. It is up to eight hours with the 9400M integrated graphics.
  • All told, this is three hours longer than the previous 17-inch MacBook Pro, equalling a 60% increase in battery life.
  • Also, for the first time with the new unibody MacBooks, Apple is offering an anti-glare option. It costs $50 more than the glossy display because the bezel has to be removed after it’s already assembled.
  • $2799.99

Click here to see this MacBook Pro on our website.

Available at the end of the month—reserve your now!

Similar Posts

  • My First Impressions

    It just was not the same to see a Macworld Keynote without Steve Jobs, but I thought that Phil Schiller did an admirable job of showing off the latest from Apple.

    The top four innovations from my point of view were:

    1) iPhoto – the changes to iPhoto are simply astounding. It is the most advanced photo management system for consumers ever conceived. It will make your photo library more accessible, more manageable and more useful than ever before. iPhoto is reason enough all by itself to buy a Mac!

    2) iMovie – the new features in iMovie have me thinking about taking a video camera with my on my upcoming safari to Tanzania. The ability to manipulate your videos and the new tools introduced make video editing even within my capabilities.

    3) The Mac Box Set – The new package @ $169 of iWork, iLife and Leopard is a great way to get folks stuck back with Tiger finally into the modern age!

    4) DRM-free iTunes – YES, this will make managing your music library as easy as managing your photo library. It is a credit to Apple that the record labels have finally seen the light and dropped the requirement for DRM on music. Apple has demonstrated that they have the market for music no one else can touch.

    Plus, I like a lot of the features in the new MacBook Pro 17-inch, especially the new battery. While I know some will complain about the non-removable battery, I am sure that it can be replaced by Apple Service Providers and with a 1000-cycle life and up to 8-hours on a charge, you do not have to carry a spare battery just to get through the day!

    I was surprised to see Tony Bennett as the musical star at the end of the keynote but Artie was enraptured and applauded wildly.

  • iLife '09 Update: iPhoto

    iPhoto has gotten many updates in the iLife ’09 edition. iPhoto is arguably the most-used application in the iLife suite, behind iTunes.

    For starters, there are now three ways to sort your photos:

    * Events
    * Faces
    * Places

    Events was a new way to view and sort photos with the last iLife release, but both Faces and Places are new.

    Faces relies on face recognition, and assists in tagging photos. Amazingly, it will find a face and ask in other photos if it is the same person… I guess we’ll see! There’s also integration with Facebook and Flickr.

    Places works with Google Maps to zoom in on a location. It uses latitude and longitude, and will automatically add a location to your photos. This is great because you’ll be able to ‘geotag’ your entire set of photos. Phil uses the example of “Yosemite” in that if you have just taken a vacation there, it will geotag all of your photos from the trip!

    I’m really excited to check iPhoto ’09 out, especially the tagging and face recognition features. As Don mused, “will it be able to recognize dog’s faces, too?” Unfortunately, apparently not, but we’ll be reporting more on iPhoto’s features in future issues of Kibbles & Bytes!

    “Learn more and pre-order iLife ’09 here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

  • iLife '09 Update: iMovie

    Apple has updated iMovie ’08 to iMovie ’09 as part of iLife ’09. iMovie ’09 was introduced with the statement that iMovie ’08 “didn’t have all the features that older customers wanted.” Apple has added “a bunch of features that should please everyone.” Phil Schiller continued to say that Apple has added “depth and power” to iMovie ’09.

    Some of the new features include:

    * Precision editor with expanded timeline for advanced users. Improved drag and drop of video clips and audio clips. Easier to insert, overlay, replace, and add audio straight from clips. Sound can now be extended from the first clip over audio from the second clip to give pro continuity to edits. Also now easier to skim and see edits before and after cuts.

    * Automatic video stabilization. The software identifies jittery/bumpy motion and reduces it by comparing frames of video to subsequent and previous frames. Video stabilization along with image stabilization in camcorders can practically create still photos. Two-step process. The first-pass is processor intensive.

    * Now possible to integrate maps into iMovie projects, including an option for Indiana Jones-style flyovers with a beginning and end point.

    * iMovie once again supports DVD chapter makers and titles for use with iDVD ’09, which is very welcome news.

    Other features include new themes complete with titles, transitions and credits. “Clip adjustment” includes a slider to speed up or slow down video clips (which was mystifyingly absent in iMovie ’08). A new Project Library shows you all your film clips. New video effects have been added with instant previewing; no rendering is necessary. Read all new changes “by clicking here.”:http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/new-features.html

    Personally, the announcement of iMovie ’09 was the most exciting event at this Macworld. I can’t wait to try it out. It sounds like creating engaging, attractive videos will be more fun than ever.

    “Learn more and pre-order iLife ’09 here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

  • _Dear Friends,_

    I am writing from my hotel room in San Francisco at Macworld. I just came back from the nearest Starbucks for a grande black eye before I get on the plane to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. I walked outside and everyone seemed to be all bundled up with down coats, gloves, etc. It was 50 degrees out! I was proud of my tough Green Mountain blood in my t-shirt.

    This has been a very productive Macworld, although I only had about an hour to look on the show floor. I have been in meetings, one after another, every day. It is these one-on-one meetings, the dinners and social events where business takes place that I will miss with the absence of Apple’s presence at Macworld.

    There was a lot of reminiscing and talk about how we will preserve this personal contact in an increasingly impersonal business world. Everyone seems to be very concerned (and rightfully so) about the economy, and I must have heard someone say they are just “biding time” about a hundred times.

    I am very excited about the iLife ’09 and the great bargain that the Mac Box Set represents. I was able to take a look at the new iPhoto and had a chance to talk to the designer/engineer from Apple. I had an important question: would the new facial recognition feature, Faces, work for dogs? Unfortunately, the answer was “no,” but he said that it was the most asked question thus far!

    I’ll give you a short report from the CES show next week as Geoff and I search the floor for some new products. We have a whole new set of meetings before I fly back home on Sunday.

  • iLife '09 Update: GarageBand

    At Macworld, Phil Schiller introduced a new version of GarageBand. The biggest new feature is called “Learn to Play.” It is designed to teach people to play instruments such as guitar and keyboards. You see the a representation of the instrument on the screen with a video of the instructor facing you.

    Celebrity instructors include Sting, Sarah McLachlan, John Fogerty, and more. Apple says “learn to play a hit song from the artist who made it famous,” which I think sounds pretty cool. Additional video lessons can be purchased from the new GarageBand store for $4.99.