New, Hidden MacBook Features

Over in Spain, I'm still waiting to get my hands on the new MacBooks. Our own Mark McClusky has already had a ride on them, and MacWorld's Jason Snell got his hands on one for long enough to discover a few little extras Steve didn't mention yesterday.

While the MacBook and the MacBook Pro now look very similar, they have both inherited features from their direct predecessors. The Pro has its speakers up on top, next to the keyboard, while the MacBook keeps its rear-firing design. The graphics remain similar, in that the MB still has integrated graphics, but the Pro has a discrete card, with the addition of an extra, battery saving, on-board chip. In fact, the control to choose which card you use is in OS X's Energy Saver Preference Pane. Sadly, according to Snell, you need to log out to actually change between them.

And as we have already mentioned, the ports have changed somewhat. But it's the features they share that are the most interesting.

First, they both get easy-access hard drives. The old MacBook let you pull out the HDD via the battery bay (after loosening a few screws), but now it is even easier: The hard drive is hidden under the same panel as the battery and is held in by a single Philips screw. It looks even easier than swapping out the drive on a Mac Pro.

The trackpads get four finger gestures, wired in to Exposé. Up shows the desktop, down shows all open windows, and the bottom corners can be assigned to a right-click.

Last is compatibility with the iPhone earbuds. Both new MacBooks support click to pause, skip and rewind, along with volume. It's neat but of limited utility.

All in, these are looking pretty sexy. I have an almost new MacBook Pro on my desk, and it's actually starting to look a little tacky. It is, however, happily hooked up to a FireWire external drive.

First Look: MacBook and MacBook Pro [Macworld]