TheMacAdvocate » MacBook Pro

ThunderBolt: Coming to a Laptop and Living Room Near You

JT — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:22:44 +0000

With the announcement of Apple’s new MacBook refresh came the debut of another revolutionary transport technology: the semi-awesomely named ThunderBolt. Developed in partnership with Intel the I/O is dual protocol (supporting both video and data transfer) and allows for bi-directional transfer rates of 10 GB/s. This is big for a couple of reasons:

1. It’s fucking fast. As in “transfer a BluRay movie in 30 seconds” fast; 20x faster than USB 2.0, and 12x times faster than FireWire 800.

2. Its supported by 2 tech super-heavyweights who are committed to its implementation across its product lines. This ain’t Apple’s implementation of FireWire in 1995.

3. Its support for multiple I/O’s and its support for daisy-chaining means fewer cables and ports – if you’re into that kind of look.

There’s a little something going on in North Carolina, however, that’s going to have a less obvious but nonetheless huge impact on Apple customers. You can bet there’s enough ThunderBolt running through Apple’s new server farm to string up the entire IT group of your average Fortune 500 company. When Apple’s glut of storage comes online, ThunderBolt will provide PCI Express interconnects much easier, cheaper and more energy efficiently. The geektastic description for such a use case from HPCWire here.

As usual, when Apple does something as big as introduce an entirely market-untested protocol like ThunderBolt, it’s not just one application they’re shooting for. My dream of ubiquitous content counts on it.

ThunderBolt: Coming to a Laptop and Living Room Near You originally appeared on TheMacAdvocate on February 24, 2011.

Street on Apple: 10% year-over-year. TMA: Pfffft.

JT — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:24:54 +0000

It’s time for Apple to report on earnings yet again‚ kiddies. And the tech analyst keystone cop routine continues. The beat’s worst weatherman is continuing the “yeah‚ but” style of analysis they teach at Harvard. The consensus from the Street has Apple reporting earnings at $1.16 per share and 10% YOY growth.

Pffffffft.

Apple will stomp these estimates for 2 simple reasons: 3GS and MBP. We know the 3GS blew past predicted sales and it looks like the price cut in the MacBook Pro line may make June one for the record books at Apple. Get ready for the “boom”‚ indeed.

Update: $1.35/share on $8.34B in revenue – a new record for a non-holiday quarter.

Street on Apple: 10% year-over-year. TMA: Pfffft. originally appeared on TheMacAdvocate on July 21, 2009.

MBP Battery Tops Workday Circa 1965

JT — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:01:45 +0000

The guys over at Anandtech have completed their battery benchmarks for the new 15″ MacBook Pros. My favorite line: “Eight, freakin, hours. I couldn’t believe it…There’s no way this could be right.” This was for non-Java webpages (20 seconds per page) with iTunes songs looping simultaneously.

I have a feeling the people bitching about the replaceability of the battery might pipe down a bit.

MBP Battery Tops Workday Circa 1965 originally appeared on TheMacAdvocate on June 15, 2009.