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Ordinarily, its not really news when a computer company introduces a new laptop model. You dont see newspaper headlines blaring, "Gateways New P32-XC5 Adds Faster Processor, Third U.S.B. Port."
But the new Apple MacBook Pro ($2,000 and up) is a different story. Although it looks nearly identical to the companys existing 15-inch PowerBook, something radical is going on under the hood.
Apples high-end laptops are beautiful, thin and light, clad in scuff-hiding aluminum and crammed with features: Wi-Fi wireless networking, Bluetooth wireless, DVD burning, light-up keys for typing in the dark, stereo speakers, batteries with illuminated "fuel gauges" and much more. But the speed of Apples laptops has only inched forward in recent years, no thanks to the suppliers of its processor chips ( I.B.M. and Freescale).
Apple made the eyebrow-raising decision, therefore, to replace that chip family with chips from another company you may have heard of: Intel.
Now, changing chip families in a computer isnt as simple as changing a CD in your stereo. The entire operating system and every single software program must be rewritten — recompiled, the geeks would say — to speak the new chips language. That process can take weeks or months.
But Apple deemed the big transition to be worth the effort. In return, it gets the state of the art in laptop horsepower: Intels new Core Duo chip, which bears two electronic brains instead of one. By the end of this year, every Macintosh model will receive an Intel brain transplant. (The same Core Duo chip, running at the same speeds, is also showing up in new Windows laptops. And no, the Intel chip does not make a Mac vulnerable to Windows viruses. It does, however, mean that in theory, with the help of a conversion kit that someone will surely write, a Mac could run Windows.)
Last month, Apple put an Intel chip into the iMac; on Tuesday, it put one into the Mac Mini. And this week, the first Mac laptop containing the Intel processor is reaching customers — a 15-inch PowerBook thats been inexplicably renamed the MacBook Pro. (Why do Mac fans despise the new name so much? Partly because all those harsh consonants — K, K, P — make the name uglier and harder to say.)
APPLE calls the MacBook "the finest laptop in the world." In truth, a more accurate description would be "the finest laptop in the world, with a small serving of disappointment on the side."
You can see why Apple might be fond of its latest machine. The one-inch-thick MacBook is only 0.1 inch thinner than the PowerBook, but somehow feels worlds sleeker and more futuristic. Fit, finish and quality are spectacular.
The wireless antenna has been moved, so Wi-Fi reception is much improved. The guts, from the bus (circuitry) to the graphics card, have been substantially accelerated. Battery life is pretty much the same as on the PowerBooks: 3 to 3.5 hours.
The MacBook trumps its predecessor in five substantial areas. First, the gorgeous, 1,440-by-900-pixel screen is much whiter and brighter. Its very, very bright. At half brightness, it matches the brightest setting of other laptops; at full brightness, it could illuminate a runway. Its really bright.
Second, a tiny video camera is tucked inconspicuously above the screen. Its ideal for taking Web pictures (640 by 480 pixels), capturing video or creating video blogs to post online. (The laptops bounteous software collection includes programs for making blogs, Web sites, videos and podcasts.)
Better yet, the camera makes the MacBook a perfect companion to the iChat program, which lets you hold smooth, full-screen video conferences with up to three other people over the Internet — free. Other Mac laptops can join such virtual meetings (using an external camera), but the MacBook is the first laptop with the horsepower to start one. (One high-speed Mac must be the "host" of an iChat conference; slower machines connect afterward.)
The third enhancement is a slim finger-length remote control. You can use it to operate the MacBook from across the room, summoning slide shows of your photos, concerts of your music collection, playbacks of your movies or playback of a DVD youve inserted.
In addition, theres a new power cord. Now, most people probably wouldnt consider a laptops power cord worth writing home about, let alone taking up precious newspaper space. But this ones a breakthrough.
It attaches to the laptop magnetically. If someone trips on the cord — which, in the real world of laptops, is practically an inevitability — your $2,000 computer doesnt crash to the floor. Instead, the cord politely detaches and drops, leaving the laptop sitting exactly where it was, grinning away on battery power.
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