New Macbook

Well, they're here. The new Macbooks.

Back when the Intel Mac Mini came out, I said that the MacBook would have a similar specification:

I guess the new iBooks will have a substantially identical specification when they're announced. Hopefully they'll have a higher resolution screen, though. A 1280x1024, or even 1280x800 dual core iBook would be very nice indeed.

Recent posts about the amount of heat generated by the Macbook Pros and the fact that the graphics hardware is underclocked to preserve battery life (and avoid heat generation) have tarnished the luster a bit. It's likely that the Intel graphics won't be underclocked, though, and, while the Macbook won't be a gaming power house, it'll be fine for most slightly older games. No Oblivion for you, but you could probably play NeverWinterNights quite well.

A word of warning to those who fancy one, though. In my experience, 512MB is barely enough RAM for OSX10.4 (although 10.4.6 is a big improvement), and sharing the system memory with the graphics won't help it at all. You want at least 1Gb, and preferably just max that sucker out to 2Gb. Having said that, two cores should improve the responsiveness of the system tremendously.