Apple's only hardware announcement yesterday was the 17" MacBook Pro revision which brings the laptop in-line with the rest of the unibody laptops introduced in November. The new notebook brings a few welcome changes to the high-end Apple notebook, including a maximum of 8GB of RAM.
The non-replaceable battery, however, has generated some complaints but Apple's promises that their technology should allow the battery to last 5 years before it needs replacing. When that time comes, Gizmodo was told that the battery replacement will cost $179.
While the elimination of the battery component (photo) extends battery life to a 8 hours, it also introduces some accessibility issues to items such as RAM and Hard Drives. On other unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros, these are easily accessible through the battery compartment.
Apple has posted a video explaining the technology and reasoning behind the non-removable battery.
Related Forum: MacBook Pro
