[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

I do know that, which makes me wonder why in one comment section of one post, you reminded me of it twice.

Sorry for being redundant - I just get so excited in these discussions.

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

We could argue all day about the importance of computer gaming, but I can't help but feel that it's used more as a point against Macs than a point in favor of Windows. Maybe it's just the crowd I run with.

Desktop computer gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry...one look at all the high-end video cards out there from ATI and NVIDIA tells us that. I'm not saying that you can't use a Mac for games, but if someone says they want a computer for gaming as their primary purpose, Windows is it - until the Mac reaches parity with Windows where developers release games on both platforms at or near the same time.

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

I'm not being ignorant, and I'm not dismissing. I'm literally asking the question: who the hell needs Blu Ray on a 16" laptop?

Again, it's about the media. Yes, Blu-ray is slow to take off - but when I see my own father getting a Blu-ray player (and he's not a techie - he just got his first HD TV this year), I know it's growing slowly but surely. So if you have a Blu-ray player in your home, and you've got a few Blu-ray discs, or you rent from Netflix or wherever, having a Blu-ray player on your laptop would probably be useful, no? I'm not saying this is the end-all, be-all awesome feature, but it's more more solution for the user.

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

Blu Ray for movies on a screen size and resolution of 16 inches seems, in my ignorant and uninformed opinion, like a waste of money whether or not Apple makes equivalent hardware.

Someone else mentioned the HDMI output - don't forget about that. I've gone on vacation and done HDMI output to a TV set and watched ripped movies on my laptop (and that's when you'd use a remote). It's sweet! And, honestly, find someone with a laptop with a Blu-ray player in it, and look at the same movie on DVD then on Blu-ray. You'll see a very big difference, largely because you're only a foot or two away from the screen, so the extra resolution really pops.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

I do know that, which makes me wonder why in one comment section of one post, you reminded me of it twice.

Sorry for being redundant - I just get so excited in these discussions.

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

We could argue all day about the importance of computer gaming, but I can't help but feel that it's used more as a point against Macs than a point in favor of Windows. Maybe it's just the crowd I run with.

Desktop computer gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry...one look at all the high-end video cards out there from ATI and NVIDIA tells us that. I'm not saying that you can't use a Mac for games, but if someone says they want a computer for gaming as their primary purpose, Windows is it - until the Mac reaches parity with Windows where developers release games on both platforms at or near the same time.

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

I'm not being ignorant, and I'm not dismissing. I'm literally asking the question: who the hell needs Blu Ray on a 16" laptop?

Again, it's about the media. Yes, Blu-ray is slow to take off - but when I see my own father getting a Blu-ray player (and he's not a techie - he just got his first HD TV this year), I know it's growing slowly but surely. So if you have a Blu-ray player in your home, and you've got a few Blu-ray discs, or you rent from Netflix or wherever, having a Blu-ray player on your laptop would probably be useful, no? I'm not saying this is the end-all, be-all awesome feature, but it's more more solution for the user.

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

Blu Ray for movies on a screen size and resolution of 16 inches seems, in my ignorant and uninformed opinion, like a waste of money whether or not Apple makes equivalent hardware.

Someone else mentioned the HDMI output - don't forget about that. I've gone on vacation and done HDMI output to a TV set and watched ripped movies on my laptop (and that's when you'd use a remote). It's sweet! And, honestly, find someone with a laptop with a Blu-ray player in it, and look at the same movie on DVD then on Blu-ray. You'll see a very big difference, largely because you're only a foot or two away from the screen, so the extra resolution really pops.

[Spooof]

Sorry for lurking and then just popping into the discussion... a few comments...

• I used to play FPS games on my original MBP 15inch via boot camp. At least until my keyboard would get too hot to rest my fingers on. It worked great for the most part. I have never purchased a OS-x based game... seems pointless. PC is way better for any resource intensive game.

• dvd vs blueray vs crappy downloaded video. I watch a lot of movies and TV on my MBP with my wife. Seems silly considering I have a ridiculously large TV (almost as large as Jason's) but we do it anyway. I can totally notice the difference. My wife on the other hand doesn't really care. The only thing that she ever mentions / complains about is the black bars when the aspec ratio does not utilize the full screen. My point is I am not sure the average user cares... only us geeks.

• Regarding hardware comparisons: there is more to it than specs. I have exposure to a lot of business quality notebooks and a few consumer notebooks. In general the fit and finish is not in the same league as apple. I am not sure how you assign a dollar value to this, but it should be factored in (my opinion).

cheers