New Macbook Pros announced

[kachaffeous]

Do you think any of these changes will make it to the air anytime soon (hd camera, thunderbolt, sandybridge)?

I know they were updated in Oct, so I'm thinking summertime w/ Lion release?

 

[runawayprisoner]

I meant if it came default with 8GB of RAM.

You don't see a lot of laptops sold with 8GB installed by default these days. $50 is wishful thinking. You are talking about 2 sticks of 4GB DDR3 each. Unless it's a promotion, those go for $75-80 to over $100 for Mac-compatible pairs.

I don't think Air will be updated until October of this year. And honestly, those need Sandy Bridge more than the MacBook Pro line.

 

[senseamp]

Intel is saying Thunderbolt is going to be Apple exclusive till 2012. That might hamper its adoption by device manufacturers, which have to chose between it and USB 3.0, which the new MBP lacks. Hopefully there is a third party Thunderbolt USB3.0 adapter out soon, so that MBP buyers have access to USB3.0 should this new interconnect battle not go Thunderbolt's way. I do like the high speed interconnect itself though. Sort of like external PCI-E.

 

[TheStu]

Do you think any of these changes will make it to the air anytime soon (hd camera, thunderbolt, sandybridge)?

I know they were updated in Oct, so I'm thinking summertime w/ Lion release?

HD Camera, no reason why not.
Thunderbolt, should be ok, it depends on how big the controller chip is and if there is room. There is no need for a new port, so that is the deciding factor.
Sandy Bridge... I believe that there is a 35W SB part that the 13" MBA can take, but I am not sure if there is a 10W part that the 11" MBA would need. Since Apple has determined that the HD3000 GPU is sufficient for OpenCL and whatnot, that is no longer a factor.

Intel is saying Thunderbolt is going to be Apple exclusive till 2012. That might hamper its adoption by device manufacturers, which have to chose between it and USB 3.0, which the new MBP lacks. Hopefully there is a third party Thunderbolt USB3.0 adapter out soon, so that MBP buyers have access to USB3.0 should this new interconnect battle not go Thunderbolt's way. I do like the high speed interconnect itself though. Sort of like external PCI-E.

From Apple's Website:

One small port. One giant leap in possibilities.
MacBook Pro now gives you access to a world of high-resolution displays and high-speed peripherals with one compact port. That’s because Thunderbolt is based on two fundamental technologies: PCI Express and DisplayPort.

PCI Express is the technology that links all the high-performance components in a Mac. And it’s built into Thunderbolt. Which means you can connect external devices like RAID arrays and video capture solutions directly to MacBook Pro — and get PCI Express performance. That’s a first for notebooks. Thunderbolt also provides 10 watts of power to peripherals, so you can tackle workstation-class projects on the go. With PCI Express technology, you can use existing USB and FireWire peripherals — even connect to Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks — using simple adapters.

And because Thunderbolt is based on DisplayPort technology, the video standard for high-resolution displays, any Mini DisplayPort display plugs right into the Thunderbolt port. To connect a DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or VGA display, just use an existing adapter.

 

[nerp]

I'd want a 13 inch with the AMD gfx. Oh well.