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Maybe I'm the only one who feels like Apple is getting arrogant with their marketshare.

Methinks you have cause and effect backwards. Apple's willingness to simplify their product line is the reason they have a growing marketshare.

Apple's been making design decisions like this since Steve Jobs insisted on the one-button mouse. And left the floppy out of the original iMac. And released a notebook without a CD-ROM drive. You can't claim that this is something new. This is how Apple works. You can have any color so long as it's aluminum.

Having to pay a premium for Firewire is what makes me unhappy, since I just bought more Firewire peripherals, including a Firewire-based audio interface. But... oh well. The good news is my old Macbook is still working just fine. When it finally kicks the bucket, I might as well spend the extra money on a Macbook Pro and get my Firewire. It's not as if I'll save any money by migrating to Windows on a Dell, or by trying to figure out if there's a 1password equivalent on Ubuntu and whether I can transfer my 250 stored passwords to it without retyping them all.

You can have any color so long as it's aluminum.

Nice turn of phrase. The irony is that Ford made everything black because it was cheaper. Jobs is making everything aluminum because it acts as a distinguishing factor, so it lets him charge more... I imagine we're only a few years away from hardwood computers.

Well... The Apple I had a nice wooden case.

http://thegeekreview.com/2008/04/25/steampunk-mac-mini/

"I also hate real buttons I guess."

First Steve came for my right mouse button,

but I was silent;

I did not need both mouse buttons...

Lol @ connecting new Apple releases and the Holocaust.

"I also hate real buttons I guess"

It is a real button. Did you not read the article/presentation etc? You can just decide that the bottom 1/3rd of the trackpad is the old button and keep using it just as you did with a satisfying click and small movement as before.

As for matt screens.... meh

AFAICT, that's not a real button. That's a configurable pseudo-button. In particular, there doesn't appear to be tactile feedback -- the most important part of button-pressing for those of us old-school types who like to press buttons.

"No tactile feedback". The button goes down and clicks. What more tactile feedback is there for a button?

The most important tactile feedback of a button is not the spring of depression but rather the shape of the button itself. It allows you to constantly reset your bearings. When you're typing on a keypad, for example, you feel whether your finger is hitting the button square in the middle, or slightly to the left or right and adjust accordingly. You can look at the screen and type because of that.

Hell, you can probably type whole paragraphs with your eyes shut without erring. Without the feel of physical buttons, you'll inevitably drift one direction or the other. That's why BlackBerry typing is really so much better than the iPhone. When you have both in broad daylight and are staring at the buttons as you type, the difference isn't as noticeable. But on a Berry, you can text one-handed while driving (though I don't recommend it) while on an iPhone you'd slip up pretty fast. Or, more importantly, you can look at the screen exclusively as you type, as you would on a computer.

I'm not sure if this is relevant here though. Perhaps it will cause your fingers to drift upward when not looking? I really don't know.

Every source I've seen -- including the linked article -- describes it as a "glass multi-touch trackpad". This does not imply that it has tactile feedback, beyond the clicky noises (which aren't tactile).

Where did you get your information?

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Watch the video. 3/4 of the way in, they introduce the trackpad. You can clearly see that the trackpad gets recessed when you click on it.

Yes, it's a glass trackpad. It's also a physical button. This was made clear in the presentation, in the description on Apple.com and in a video also on Apple.com. Here's the video, you can see the button go up and down:

http://www.apple.com/macbook/#designvideo

The description on the apple site is less than clear ("the trackpad is the button"), but thanks for the video link.

"...and we actually don't hate the all-clicking trackpad much at all. (If your thumb muscle memory makes you click at the bottom where the button used to be, it works and feels pretty much the same.)"

It /feels/ the same as the old trackpad thus it has tactile feedback. The entire trackpad clicks.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/apple-macbook-aluminum-an...

Hey...can we please stop with the moderation flogging?

I asked a question in good faith. Why all the down-voting?

IMHO, original comment (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=332526) should be modded to slightly negative, because it's false, even if it's an honest mistake. (I think you could stop the bleeding by acknowledging the error with an after-edit.)

Followup question about sources is fair, but still seems to advance an erroneous impression based on "every source I've seen". So slight downmodding (perhaps just to zero) doesn't seem clearly abusive to me.

(I've only downmodded the original false comment, while upmodding those providing true information and details.)

I changed the wording around. Thanks.

"every source I've seen" you said, and you didn't even check the Apple website? What sources were you looking at???

I did check the apple site, but hadn't seen the video. The linked article didn't really describe it, nor did any of the half-dozen other articles I've read.

The copy on the apple site is ambiguous -- saying that the trackpad "is the button" could mean a lot of things, including that the trackpad acts as the button (which is how I read it). It isn't an unreasonable interpretation.

Sure, but that would be seriously lame.... "The trackpad is the button" meaning 'you can still do tap to click like you have been doing'?

I guess they could make it more obvious that the trackpad is actually physically a button...

I'm there with you on the lack of a matte display. I find it hard to believe that glare is not an issue to those with glossy screens. I think people simply deal with it because of our inherent draw towards that which is shiny...

My thoughts exactly. For me, a glossy display is really hard to use, functionality is ruined.

That's the way my brain is wired, I can't help it. I only hope that notebooks with matte displays don't disappear, and that I can install Linux on them.

You should borrow one from a friend and try it for a few hours.

I thought I'd hate it, but I absolutely love it. I've never had glare issues in an environment that wouldn't have totally washed out my old matte MacBookPro anyhow. For my use, the glossy screen has been an improvement 100% of the time.

I thought I agreed with you, but then I got a MacBook Air, and I haven't noticed the gloss at all.

I would guess that the glossy screen is necessary for the construction of the computer. Is glass-and-matte possible? (I'm not knowledgeable here; I might be wrong.)

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/793754/2/i...

My guess is that they could, at the very least they could just add a matte coating. Also, they claim that the track pad is glass, and it certainly isn't shiny, though how an LCD would look through it I'm not 100% sure.

I won't use a glossy screen. If all Mac offers is glossy, then I won't use Mac.

This is why I didn't get a Dell Ubuntu laptop.

Then buy a 17 inch MacbookPro... There was no mention of discontinuing those.

No Apple just has a hardon for glossy.

The slides say that the screen overlay goes edge-to-edge and is glass. So I'd say that matte is not an option because the screen is behind a glass panel.

Ah. So matte is something that goes over a screen?

In that case, yeah: what you said makes sense. I like the glass-over-everything aesthetic: it unifies everything. And losing matte is a shame, but I'll reserve criticism until I see the new Macbooks in action. If the screen really is bright enough to cancel out overbearing glare, then I'll forgive Apple for this. If not... then I'll just hope they have some revolutionary anti-glare thingie coming out soon.

People who like 17" screens were also not invited to the party.

Patience--they are planned but delayed by component problems. In the grand scheme of things, 2-3 months doesn't really matter.

and people who don't have a lot of money.

Why don't you buy the last generation of Macbook Pro which was the best machine until yesterday and it will have all the features you want(matte screen, real button, firewire) and you'll save a ton of cash if you go refurb.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore....

If the hardware bothers you that much just get a Dell and install Mac OS. Steve Jobs isn't going to send the FBI to your doorstep.

Indeed. Hardware and operating system are not meant to be tied together.

Thats one o the selling points for Apple: the hardware and the OS going together and just working.