Unadvertised Updates

So I've noticed Apple as being prone to update their peripherals without any sort of announcements whatsoever - even after the fact!

What this means is that basically many people would buy something, only to find out months later that 2 days after they bought said item, a newer model came out, which of course by that time was too late.

So far the item list consists of:
MacBook Pro MagSafe Power Adapter (drastic reduction in size from previous version)
AirPort Extreme Base Station (gigabit ethernet added)

I know I got hit with the MagSafe one (MBP ordered 1 week before they released the adapter, and they wouldn't exchange it), and was nearly hit with the Airport station upgrade (luckily I held off buying it just for a bit!) Anyone know of anything else that Apple released without announcing it?

In fact, it'd be nice if we could simply compile a list of such upgrades as they appear, and the dates of each upgrade, so there'd be a consolidated place to find such info. Obviously, it's not as useful being a list after the fact, but it'd still be a place one could check. Maybe we could even turn it into a guide like the macrumors buying guide with dates of last upgrade and anticipated next upgrade.

 

I'm with you on the Mag safe Adapter it's very anoying but I believe Apple works on secrecy and doesn't give much away when it comes to new product and upgrades, etc.

I tend to use rumor sites like:
http://www.thinksecret.com/
http://www.macrumors.com/
http://www.macobserver.com/
http://www.macscoop.com/

They tend to be quite accurate rumors and if there are any hints of something new I try and hold off buying. If only I had found these sites before I bought my MBP.

 

I was not aware of this till you told me. But I just found out i got the small one.

 

a smaller (macbook sized) power adapter from the macbook pro is not that big of a deal. think about degrees of portability. if you are carrying around a power adapter, both are too bulky to be super portable. its nice that its smaller, but its not something you should be freaking out about if you buy earlier vs later.

do you even have a use for a gigabit ethernet for you airport base station thing? you probably won't ever even use standard 10/100 ethernet to its full potential. likewise, not a biggie.

 

It seems a lot of people are confused about gigabit ethernet. Virtually nobody, on a home network, has a quick enough connection for it to even matter. You're just paying for something you'll never use.

 

i was just wondering, I got my macbook pro last weekend... i dont know how the old adapter looks like so how do i know which one i got... any idea?

 

I looks the same as the new one, only larger. Here's a link that shows a good comparison:

Mabook Pro Power Adapter Comparison

 

Well, for example, if you have an external HDD on your router and want to do stuff with it faster.

It's true that most such updates are incremental and probably not immediately useful - but for the same amount of money, it's quite annoying to not even know about it.

I could argue that a smaller power adapter can be absolutely *critical* because the front pouch of my bag barely fits the bigger one (not true, but it *could* be true depending on the bag).

 

so i got the new one... woohoo

 

Add to that list http://9to5mac.com/ and http://www.appleinsider.com/

 

true for internet wise but many people have a media server/network storage or just have 2 or more computers they want to transfer stuff between so it would be very useful to have gigabit