14 DAY TRIAL // The rumor mills have been churning up a lot of reports about new Mac portables, and it looks like at least one of them was spotted on. Apple has released updated versions of its MacBook consumer notebooks, with processor, memory and hard drive bumps.
The update to the MacBook line puts it much closer to the MacBook Pro one than it previously was. With faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 1GB of memory and larger hard drives in every model, Apple's most popular Mac just got better. The MacBook is just one-inch thin and features built-in 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g. Every MacBook also includes a built-in iSight video camera for on-the-go video conferencing, Apple's MagSafe Power Adapter that safely disconnects when under strain, and iLife '06, Apple's award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications. The MacBook also comes with the latest release of the world's most advanced operating system, Mac OS X version 10.4.9 Tiger, including Safari, Mail, iCal, iChat AV, Front Row and Photo Booth.
"The MacBook is a huge hit with customers, and is one of the reasons that Mac sales are growing three times faster than PC sales," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the press release. "The new MacBook is faster, has even more memory and storage, and is an ideal notebook for customers' growing library of digital music, photos and movies."
With the gap between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro now being so narrow, it won't be long until Apple comes out with new MacBook pro models that will undoubtedly use Santa Rosa processors from Intel. The rumors also heavily indicate that the new MacBook Pros will have solid state memory to help with boot times and power consumption.