New MacBook Pro Is Cooler Than Previous One. No, Really.

Agreed. My new 17" MacBook Pro actually runs cooler than the original 1Ghz Powerbook it's replacing.

No worries...

Ok guys, here's the thing...If Bill is bad because everything he does, how is Steve any better? Apple ties you down with both, hardware and software. In the essence, you are really buying a piece of disposable technology and not even a very good one at that! Arrogant marketing that works only in Northern America (nobody else is using Apple - for a good reason which I'll come to in a sec!) and very misleading as well makes me resent them and never even think about getting one. For example: Innovation What did they invent!? MP3? No. MP3 players? Of course not. The one thing, however, they did invent is a perfect trap....you spend your money to purchase a bad quality song off of iTunes (128 - bit rate - radio quality - especially with the AAC standard!) and you end up with something you can play only on a worst player of them all - no features, no quality, disposable (the battery issue). Then take their computers...stating how they are the fastest and the best ever produced (Power PC G5) and not two weeks after that they release the Intel based G5 and say that it is up to 6x faster than the PowerPC G5 - meanwhile, PC computers have been using the exact same Intel chip for a year at that time. You really have to be ignorant and computer-illiterate person not to see through their deception. Ease of use!!! Yeah, right!?!? Here is the outcome of a little experiment I conducted. I purchased an iBookG4 1.4GHz and an Acer Ferrari 3400+ AMD based laptop running XP (it is not even worth mentioning Acer outperforming Apple by far and far in every single application!) I put both of the laptops in front of my parents who never used a computer prior to this experiment and told them to get to the internet. PC After glancing at the screen they went for 'START' button and clicked on the Internet Explorer. Not 10 seconds it took them. APPLE Needless to say that the blue apple logo did nothing for them...nor did the illogical placement of the icons and badly chosen names for the applications....Safari!? After starting quite a few of the applications that had nothing to do with Internet and getting the spinning wheel (beach-ball) in the process (talk about speed!) they eventually managed to get on the internet not missing to comment on a poor design of the interface. Meanwhile, Apple is commended on their 'user friendly GUI'! I believe this needs no comments!!! CHOICE Everyday user needs a very little from their personal computer. Go on the internet, check their email, perhaps write something in any word processing application and that is it. With laptops being so affordable...let me rephrase that, with Windows based laptops being so affordable these days (around $500) most of the average users opt for one instead of a bulky desktop. Now, while everything they need a mere PII would do, advances in technology make them buy something more up-to-date. With so many companies manufacturing Windows-based laptops they can express themselves with choice of colour, shape, screen size very easily. On the other hand, they could spend 2 or often 3 times more money on an Apple laptop that first of all is not unique, second - is slow and underperforming, and third - conveys an image of a follower (iFollow, iSheep) rather than a leader of the herd. Now, my question is why would anyone in their sane mind go for something like that. And before you mention anything about virus and spyware, please use a pc first and then make a comment. MORAL CONCERNS While MS is charging a loads of money for their software, they are taking money from people who have it - big corporations, rich developers and such whereas Apple uses poor children of China to build the red iPod in order to give a small portion of the profit to poor children of Africa. How does that make one feel. The other issue I have with Mr. Steve Jobs is that even though his company is considerably smaller than Mr. Bill Gates' his financial circumstances are certainly not bad so how come than, that Mr. Steve Jobs does not give to the charity the way Mr. Bill Gates does? That is why I have no problem paying for MS products while with Apple it's another story. For all you Mac users...once you get over splurging your life savings on a piece of disposable technology, ask your smarter pc friends to show you the light at the end of the tunnel.

"128 - bit rate - radio quality - especially with the AAC standard"

Some of the points you have made in your wall of text are valid. This point however is not. AAC is often regarded as offering better quality than an .mp3 of equal bitrate.

I recently purchased a Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro. For what I paid I think it was fairly in line with any similiarly equipped 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo laptops. (Just that processor alone on the Dell Website is a $700 upgrade for an XPS laptop) So far I am extremely happy with my purchase.

I guess you can call me an iSheep.