MacBook Pro Gaming Benchmarks
From Dan:
Charles:
I read up on the gaming benchmarks for the new 2011 MBP and must say
that I wholeheartedly agree that a dedicated GPU is a must, even with
the new integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. The best source for GPU
gaming test results on a Mac are available at the always reliable
Bare Feats.
Also, the value
equation for 2010/2011 MBP units is a great comparison between
models, and although the closeouts are very appealing, I would be hard
pressed not to jump on the Thunderbolt bandwagon given the bandwidth it
allows compared to USB 3.0 and Firewire 800. According to the Intel
tech releases, Thunderbolt seems to have the ability to be
cross-compatible with Firewire and eSATA, so I would not be surprised
to see Apple eventually ditch the Firewire ports, allowing continued
use through adapters, making way for another Thunderbolt port or
another connection of sorts, further increasing versatility.
In addition, I foresee a new generation of our cherished Firewire
Target Disk mode becoming available between two Thunderbolt devices for
ultra-fast transferring of data through the daisy chaining nature of
the connection (very similar to Firewire). Imagine cloning an entire
500 GB hard drive at 60-80% capacity to another Thunderbolt device in a
matter of minutes! If the two storage devices on the linked units are
SSD, imagine how much faster that could be!
Overall, the 2011 MacBook Pro is
very tempting to me, but the only thing that continues to hold me back
(aside from the $ factor) on upgrading to one, yet alone any other
Intel 'Book (as I type on my 2005 12" 1.5 GHz PowerBook
G4), goes back to some of those DRM issues between Intel and Apple.
The last two generations of 15" MacBook Pro, and every 17" MacBook Pro
since 2008, has shipped with a screen that can easily handle 1080p HD
video. With that said, why no Blu-ray drive and Blu-ray playback still?
It's 2011 for crying out loud! Apple and Intel need to get over it and
end the power struggle. Blu-ray is now over 5 years old and is the HD
standard for commercial optical media whether or not those at Apple
want to admit it. Apple just needs to cave in and make their devices
compliant with HDCP in OS X, then add the Blu-ray playback support
in Quicktime/DVD Player (then they could call it Blu-ray Player).
I hate to get on a soap box here, but optical media (or at least
physical media) in my honest opinion will never die. iTunes downloads
(even in full HD) will never replace a physical disc or memory card I
can touch and hold, knowing that my drive will play it back again and
again. People want to have something they can always be in control of,
that they can resell or purchase on the used market.
Look at how bad the PSP Go tanked. Sony took away
UMD, went to download only, and charged the same price for the games
and videos. The masses cried foul, and the PSP Go is almost nowhere to
be found in retail outlets.
Sony learned their lesson the hard way, and the successor to the PSP
(currently code named NGP - or Next Generation Portable) will use a
proprietary form of flash memory. Sony's still in control, while the
gamers have something they can hold, along with something they can buy
and sell used. It's a win-win-win for Sony, the consumer, and the
resale outlets.
In that same light, there's the choice between physical and
streaming/download media on the Mac. While the latter is a nice
supplement, it will never serve as a replacement. Let's hope Apple and
Intel get things straightened out in time for Mac OS X 10.7 so
that Apple can finally bring us Blu-ray playback support. It would be a
great time for a slight refresh of this new line of portables just
released, along with every other Mac platform by finally offering a
Blu-ray drive option. The dual-layer Superdrive is just so 2005!
On the other hand, a fresh new MacBook with dedicated graphics and
Blu-ray drive shipped with OS X 10.7 for $999 sounds very
appealing. Use my streaming Netflix in HD, while picking up a Blu-ray
or two on the go for sleek playback using BD Live
over Wifi. I'm game! Maybe the next generation can even add a 4D
display as an option that can display 3D content without glasses
(similar to Nintendo's 3DS). Imagine what that would do for Apple's
gaming reputation?
- Dan
PS: Sorry for the rant, but it's rather frustrating that such a
simple problem has yet to be resolved with an obvious and simple
solution.
Hi Dan,
No need to apologize. It's a perfectly good rant on
some interesting topics.
I agree with you that I would not be inclined to buy
an earlier model MacBook Pro without Thunderbolt at this stage of the
game. Personally I'm not a gamer, so based on what I've been reading, I
think I could get on quite happily with just the Intel HD 3000
integrated graphics chipset. It's probably faster than the Nvidia
GeForce 9400M IGPU in my Late 2008 Unibody MacBook, and
I'm still quite satisfied with the performance I'm getting from that.
And, of course, if one needs the faster graphics, it's there in the 15"
and 17" MacBook Pro.
Regarding optical drives in general, I think we will
see internal units phased out of Apple laptops in the not too distant
future, with the MacBook Air style workaround of an optional extra-cost
external optical drive for those who still want one, hopefully with a
Thunderbolt interface rather than pokey USB. For the amount I still use
optical drives, that would be a perfectly acceptable solution, but I
would be sorry to see the optical drive gone entirely and don't
anticipate that happening for quite some time yet. I do think that it's
looking like Apple is going to phase out shrinkwrap software in favor
of Mac App Store downloads.
I'm also skeptical that we will ever see OEM Blu-ray
support on the Mac. As you say, they've held it off for five years, and
there doesn't seem to be any reason why they would change that policy.
Steve Jobs famously dislikes Blu-ray, having called it "a big bag of
hurt" a few years back. I doubt that he's changed his mind.
However, you can retrofit Blu-ray to a fairly wide
variety of Macs - even Pismos and G4 iBooks - with kits from FastMac. No Unibody
MacBook Pros though, and for movie playback you'll need to be running
Windows in Boot Camp.
For machines that are not supported by their internal
Blu-ray drive upgrades, and for that matter Macs that are, FastMac
offers a freestanding Blu-ray
drive for $109.95 (BD-ROM), $199.95 (1x BD-R), $299.95 (4x BD-R),
and $349.95 (6x BD-R). Here are some details:
Rhythm and BluCutting edge. Massive storage. High
quality. And it all fits in the palm of your hand. The next generation
DVD is here. FastMac's Blu-ray Drive takes optical burning further than
it's ever gone before. Write up to 50GBs of storage. That's 60 days
worth of music. Two months non-stop, no repeats. One disk.
FastMac's Blu-ray Drive is compatible with all
DVD and CD recordable media including DVD±R/RW + Dual/Double
Layer, DVD-RAM, and CD-R and CD-RW. A bundle containing the
award-winning Toast 8 Titanium and one 25GB Blu-ray rewritable disc is
available so you can get started right away. And with Toast's new
Dynamic Writing feature, you can use Blu-ray like a hard disk drive.
Just drag and drop directly onto the icon to add or remove files. Keep
projects separate and organized. Protect sensitive data.This is the
future of entertainment and storage. And it's here today.
Charles
Lion Beta Won't Boot a 2006 Mac mini
From John:
Good evening gents,
I ran the 10.7 beta installer on my Core 2 Duo upgraded 2006 vintage Mac mini. Lion
installed, but it doesn't boot.
Error message trying to boot Lion on a 2006 Mac mini.
Frustrating, as the installer created a system restore partition
with the same functionality as you'll find when booting from
generations of Mac OS X install discs; and that limited
environment works perfectly, fancy Lion look and all.
I must try with a Core 2 Duo native Mac mini sometime (I know
someone who runs one at home). My mini was originally an unsupported
Core Duo, and I'm wondering if its motherboard is being refused simply
because of that heritage, or if there really are missing drivers.
- John
Thanks for the report, John. I also suspect that the
problem is with the mini's motherboard being unrecognized because the
machine was originally a Core Duo unit.
Charles
Alternative Access to Files
From Greg after reading Some
System 7/OS X 10.7 Parallels:
In your 3/3 Mailbag, a reader reminisced about an alternative
file/app launcher:
"Also, System 7 had something kinda like LaunchPad.
Not the Launcher, though that was there too. But I remember there was
some application (maybe it was third party?) that was a Finder
alternative, wherein your screen was covered by one giant folder with a
grid of buttons that went across the screen. There were two tabs on the
screen - when you clicked the brown one, the buttons showed your
applications. The blue one made the buttons show your saved files. I
don't know its name, but I know that it existed. I just think it's
funny how something like that existed so ahead of its time."
Apple's At Ease launcher for System 7.
It wasn't third-party. It was Apple's own At Ease.
Greg
Response to Some System 7/OS X 10.7 Parallels
From Charles K:
Hi there:
I just wanted to let you know that the giant folder with buttons
software mentioned in the article was Apple's At Ease. It was often
used in classrooms so that children would not have access to the
machine's settings and other software that the administrator did not
want them to have access to.
Sincerely,
Charles
Bypassing At Ease
From Greg:
Charles,
Here is a link to the software Kyle was talking about, the
application was called At Ease. It was meant as a parental control type
system that was included on early Macs and was actually first party
software. It came on my family's first Mac in 1994, Performa 638CD. I remember it
frustrating me to no end that I could not have full access to the
system (I was 8 at the time). This was when I learned to RTFM - ahhh,
Shift at boot to bypass, the fondest of childhood memories. Little did
I know that bypassing that app is probably what directed me down the
path of Mac IT/Support.
Anywhoo, thought Kyle might enjoy the link and you might enjoy the
story.
Greg
At Ease File Launcher
From Matt:
Hi Charles,
Thought I would chime in on your last mailbag article regarding the
System 7/OS X 10.7 parallels letter. The "Finder alternative" that Kyle
was referring to definitely sounds to me like Apple's At Ease program.
It was very popular in education (my grade school used it for a while
on the first Macs they ever got) and on kiosks, providing a very
directed and secured interface. At one point it was added to the system
software provided on Performa models to give parents a way to provide
parental controls, and eventually At Ease for Workgroups debuted to
provide IT infrastructures the first multi-user Mac OS paradigm. A long
and distant memory, indeed....
Matt
Hi Greg, Charles, Greg, and Matt,
Ah, now I recall with you guys having jogged my
memory. I thought At Ease was aesthetically homely and clunky back in
the day and never used it.
Charles
Tabbed Finder for System 7
From Zed:
Charles,
Simple Finder in Mac OS X
In your most recent mailbag Kyle asked about the Tabbed Finder in
System 7. I think he is referring to the Simple Finder, which I think
was aimed at the education market. Indeed it was just two tabs on the
screen. One for applications and one for documents. It also had a bad
habit of getting stuck in that mode.
Zed
Hi Zed,
I think I remember the Simple Finder vaguely. What
distinguished it from the alternate At Ease environment?
Charles
Note: Answering my own question, it looks like Simple
Finder is a much less ugly OS X retake of At Ease. More info at these
links:
KVM Switch Instead of Virtual Screen Software?
From David:
Charles:
For Robert, who was looking for
virtual screen software:
If your main objective is to share a monitor between a Mac and a PC
without plugging and unplugging, why not try a Keyboard-Video-Mouse
(KVM) switch? If you're using a VGA monitor connection, KVM switches
with USB keyboard/mouse ports can be had for under US$20 on
eBay. You can then just switch back and forth between the two
computers as needed.
If you really need screen zooming or simultaneous operation of the
two machines on a single monitor, this probably won't help.
-Dave
Thanks David.
Info forwarded to Robert.
Charles
Citroënistas of the World Unite
From Tim:
Citroën DS
Took these shots a few months ago (publisher's note - not included
with this article); the locale is just around the corner from The
Travel Bookshop of that film and just a block away from
Portobello Road and just near my flat.
Heck, I remember the first DS I saw as a kid in the mid-50s in
Johannesburg. Sixty years on, and it is still an extremely elegant
timeless design.
Now FIAT have gone mad: They want to launch the Lancia Thema in the
UK as a Chrysler Thema. Will someone shoot that Canadian!
Best wishes -
Tim
Hi Tim,
Thanks muchly for the great shots. What a cool looking
car! I have never actually seen a DS convertible in the live sheet
metal. There are some in the US, but it would be an understatement to
say that Citroëns were never a big seller here in Atlantic
Canada.
We are on the same page about the DS convert. Not so
much I guess on the Lancia Thema and my fellow Canadian citizen Mr.
Marchionne. The thing is, the Lancia Thema "is" a Chrysler.
Specifically, a mildly badge-engineered Chrysler 300C with a Lancia
nameplate. This isn't really a revolutionary departure for FIAT. The
original Thema produced by Lancia between 1984 and 1994 was on a
platform shared with the SAAB 9000, the Alfa Romeo 164, and the Fiat
Croma.
The 300C is a pretty good car. The original series
that was introduced as a concept car at the 2003 New York Auto Show,
with US and Canadian sales commencing in the spring of 2004,
incorporated previous generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class suspension bits
and was available with the legendary revived Chrysler Hemi V-8. Based
on early reports, the refreshed 2011 300C that will be released later
this year (and of which the new Lancia Thema is a variant) is even
better - especially the interior styling and finish and suspension
tuning refinement, improvements I think we can attribute to Sergio
Marchionne's stewardship.
Charles
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