Apple Rolls the Dice With Intel Chips
No, there aren't "Intel Inside" stickers on Apple's new Intel- powered iMac desktops and MacBook Pro laptops, introduced this week at the Macworld Conference & Expo here. The distinctive Intel chime that ends almost every PC manufacturer's ad does not emanate from the speakers of these new machines, either.</br></br>Even from up close, it can be difficult to tell Apple's new Intel- based iMac and MacBook Pro from their PowerPC predecessors -- the iMac, in particular. With it powered off, the only easy way to distinguish it from the iMac G5 is a DVI digital-video port that takes the place of an analog VGA connector on the old model.</br></br>But with the MacBook Pro (go ahead and keep calling it a PowerBook; we probably will, too), Apple is trying out several new ideas in laptop design and taking one big gamble. It has the same built-in iSight webcam, remote control and Front Row media-viewing software as the iMac and trades in the old PowerBook's PC Card slot for a newfangled "Express Card" slot -- but it doesn't include a modem. You can buy a $49 external modem, or at some point, you may be able to pop a modem into that Express Card slot.</br></br>I haven't used a modem much in the past few years, but when I've needed to, it's always been on my laptop -- shocking as it is in a country that calls itself part of the First World, there are some places in the United States without Wi-Fi broadband. Apple is taking a risk here, and for minimal gain -- it's not like there isn't room on the laptop's flanks for a modem port.</br></br>Next to where you might expect to find such a thing, Apple has stashed one other new trick, a MagSafe power connector. Instead of requiring you to insert a plug into a socket, this flat, recessed surface uses a magnet to hold the power cable firmly in place while still allowing it to break away cleanly if the power cord gets jerked unexpectedly -- say, when I trip over it for the fifth time in a day.