That's right, Mr. Meader- don't look here for thoze rum0rz...

Definitely, Jeffe, It would be interesting to see Apple send a takedown notice to Amazon...

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James DeBenedetti
Tony, why are you ripping DVDs to your small screen mac when you could be watching them with the blu ray player on your large screen TV instead? Never mind the thousands of TV shows and movies on Netflix - EyeTV goes to the big screen as well; why would you want to watch them on a laptop? And where are you finding this pre-2010 software that runs on (Mountain) Lion (i.e., modern MBAs), but can't be downloaded and is only available on CD?

I don't necessarily want to watch them on my laptop - although if I'm in bed for any length of time it's more convenient that way.

I rip my DVDs and stream them to a WDTV Live (only after converting them to .m4v - the WDTV seems to barf of the bandwidth of an MPEG-2 stream). Ironically I am trying to get to a more "disc-less" system - but to do that I need to rip them using a (surprise!) OPTICAL DRIVE!

Netflix streaming in Australia has started but is a joke. I'm not going Blue-Ray until I absolutely have to. EyeTV has the same problem as MPEG-2 (funny that, given that's what it records in) - I have to convert with handbrake so it doesn't choke.

And I'm not "finding" pre-2010 software, I "own" pre-2010 software, some of which I'd rather not shell out the sheckels for a new version...

That 64GB MBA wouldn't even fit the OS, my iTunes & iPhoto collection. That's a fail.

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Tony Leggett
I rip my DVDs and stream them to a WDTV Live (only after converting them to .m4v - the WDTV seems to barf of the bandwidth of an MPEG-2 stream). Ironically I am trying to get to a more "disc-less" system - but to do that I need to rip them using a (surprise!) OPTICAL DRIVE!

That's odd. I rip my DVDs directly to full-size ISOs without any recompression and watch them on my WDTV devices all the time.

Maybe my wireless setup is sucky. It is about 10m from the wireless router and a 10" thick wooden beam is directly in the road.

My router is 54 Mb/s and not 108Mb/s - could that be the problem? (and 802.11g - is n meant to be better?)

No, screw that. My laptop gets the wireless fine In the bedroom and that's further way. The WDTV sucks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2012 04:56PM by Tony Leggett.

Yeah, mine are all connected either via 802.11n or Gigabit Ethernet so bandwidth is never a problem for me.

Ah, perhaps that's the stumbling block. Still, it should play something compressed to less than 1.5 Mb/s (ie a 380 MB movie that is 40 minutes long).

I'm assuming you have one of the older models that required a USB dongle for WiFi connectivity, right? The problem with those is that they have a limited amount of memory to buffer the stream and are much more susceptible to degraded WiFi performance.

Regardless, you'll have better luck if you use a shared folder to access the files instead of a DLNA server.

Oh, I have a shared folder, multiple ones. I don't know what a DLNA server is.

In that case, I blame latitude. ;)

If you'll recall, Ryan was heavy into the magic of quantum computing.
http://tinyurl.com/7zu3lvk

Quite frightening when you think about it.

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Tony Leggett
Quite frightening when you think about it.

Quite everything when you think about it (given the uncertainty principle and the multiverse).

In my old hometown, they've apparently made quite a breakthrough with quantum computing, or so it seems...

http://www.nature.com/news/quest-for-quirky-quantum-particles-may-have-struck-gold-1.10124

Well, I guess that if even a few MBP's have discrete GPU's I'll be OK. I don't mind buying a high-end MBP if it will last me three years.

What's wrong with using AMD instead of nVidia?

I'm puzzled that a laptop can be called "pro" with integrated graphics.

I'm fine with AMD or nVidia, but I don't want Intel's integrated graphics for my main gaming computer. Even though the Intel graphics in my MBA have been surprisingly adequate. I don't know if AMD's got a GPU with a low enough heat index and physical profile for a "slimmed" MacBook Pro.

Oh, the "what about AMD" question I was asking Apple or the world in general.

If the "slimmed" profile of the new MacBook (alleged)Pros is inhibiting function, perhaps form should be reconsidered.

Then again, this is Apple - and form over function would show Steve's influence lives on...

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Tony Leggett
What's wrong with using AMD instead of nVidia?

AMD dropped the ball and couldn't deliver. And people still wonder why the world's richest company would do something "crazy" like bring CPU/GPU design in-house rather than rely on suppliers like these. If you want a sneak peek into the future, note that iPad 3 has 2x the graphics power, but the same CPU as the previous version.

OK then, it's about time Apple makes a custom GPU for its Macbooks (Air and Pro) and be done with it.

But Apple won't do that when it can skimp with cut rate Intel crap.

Apple doesn't want to use Intel's lame GPUs. The problem is both AMD and Nvidia don't care enough about the manufacturing process to meet their volume commitments, so Apple has no choice but to stick with Intel. Of course, Intel still thinks the CPU is the most important part of a computer (when it's really somewhere around 7-8th), so it never dedicates enough engineering talent to anything else. This is why Apple will ultimately be forced to bring both components in-house.