12" Retina MacBook Air and Low-Price iMac Likely in 2014

[CausticSoda]

I hope they have not reduced the MBA battery life in their increasingly tiresome bid to make everything ultra-thin.

I love my 2013 MBA just as it is, but no doubt I will end up buying the new one. For what it's worth, the fan on my current model has never come on. I'm clearly not a power user!

 

[Saturn1217]

Did not realize that the three finger gesture works for all dragging. Just tried it out. Very neat although not as precise as normal dragging but i suppose if i had to i could get used to it.

Thanks to those who answered my question

 

[mojolicious]

...their increasingly tiresome bid to make everything ultra-thin.

Caustic, yet true.

 

[Mr USneun]

I seriously doubt it too, just like I do NOT see a retina coming in the MBA.

Maybe a 12" just as thin and lite as the MBA and with a retina, but not considered a MBA

Time will tell , just sit back and read the rumors

Yes, and you know why?

No new chips this year -> old chips can run Retina but with a drop in the battery life time (obvious) -> they just can't release a new MBA with less battery life time.

Same with the MBA without a fan and a Retina. The fan never jumps on in my MBA, so why would they remove it?

 

[notrack]

Did not realize that the three finger gesture works for all dragging. Just tried it out. Very neat although not as precise as normal dragging but i suppose if i had to i could get used to it.

Thanks to those who answered my question

What i like about the three finger drag: you can "push" the cursor with only one finger across the screen similar to the scrolling animation on iphone. Keep two fingers still and "flick" with the third.

But for very precise actions I click with one hand and drag with the other.

 

[paradox00]

firstly, you got lots of time to spend to negate points on a forum

An opening volley of ad hominem to start. This should be good.

secondly, I agree with the fact that 12 inch is still a rumour, hence, my nay saying was that I would not wish this implementation to take place

No. You were "definitely" nay-saying a buttonless trackpad. Period. Your second sentence laid out your assumptions for how such a trackpad would work. All I did was point out that there's a good chance those assumptions were wrong and the definite nay-saying was premature. I will admit, that I could have done it in a more friendly manner though.

thirdly, you seem to be very well aware of how it will work, apparently you're employed at a n assembly line...how else could you know that apple would devise a different way to have a click thing without having a click thing.. wow, just wow

No. I'm just capable of reading publicly available patents and applying logical thought patterns to them. It's public knowledge that Apple has devised a system to "click without clicking", and a reasonable assumption that Apple wouldn't simply take an often used feature away without replacing it with something similar. Will it ultimately reflect the patent? Maybe, maybe not.

You never did answer my question though... What do think is more likely? Removal of a feature many people use, or finding an alternate means of delivering that feature many people use?

 

[needfx]

You never did answer my question though... What do think is more likely? Removal of a feature many people use, or finding an alternate means of delivering that feature many people use?

I have not indeed, but I was going to to reply with a question: Why implement the filed patent which does not provide the alternative for a feature that many people use?

but by reading your today's post, I came to realise that they will cover that base (I can't be bothered to read through patents, kudos to you for your patience and curiosity). I have hardly read first page. 2nd page or throd page news for that matter in more than 5 months. Only photography subforum for me...

again though, I am clarifying that my nay-saying meant "I do not wish this to happen", ie totally remove the clickety thing, and not the one you perceived "it will not happen"

you bought the farm on this one

exhilarating

 

[Naimfan]

Just make a base iMac at $799 with a 20" or so screen and the internals of the i5 Mini. And it would be great of they would stop with thin for thin's sake - go back to the size of the last iMac to have an optical drive.

And for a 12" Macbook with retina - bring it on! I won't be buying one (even if it does come to be) because it'd be too small, but it sure sounds like a neat gadget. But what would happen to the 11" and 13" MBAs? Hard to believe Apple would have a lineup of 11", 12", 13"' and 15".

 

[Mattsasa]

Do you think Apple is also working on a fan-less, hard drive less, ultrathin, mac mini. which wold explain its being delayed? maybe waiting for a redesign with broadwell

 

[hleewell]

Just make a base iMac at $799 with a 20" or so screen and the internals of the i5 Mini. And it would be great of they would stop with thin for thin's sake - go back to the size of the last iMac to have an optical drive.

And for a 12" Macbook with retina - bring it on! I won't be buying one (even if it does come to be) because it'd be too small, but it sure sounds like a neat gadget. But what would happen to the 11" and 13" MBAs? Hard to believe Apple would have a lineup of 11", 12", 13"' and 15".

Well said. A laptop they can make thin but a desktop machine is not going anywhere. The original G5 iMac is already super thin for what it is. But when Apple announced the hyper-thin iMac, a realization is dawned upon me: Apple will make the next iMac even thinner (flatter back) if technically feasible.

They should consider making a desktop version of MBA, with a flatter back than current design, less powerful, almost iPad-like in appearance. Keep the current design for higher end model.

 

[Naimfan]

They should consider making a desktop version of MBA, with a flatter back than current design, less powerful, almost iPad-like in appearance. Keep the current design for higher end model.

Thanks.

I like your idea for the iMac!

 

[mdelvecchio]

The iPad mostly plays old games or games that don't compete with computer level games, Why do you think you only see the old GTA games from the first xbox on the iPad? Running anything remotely new would kill your computer.

guess you haven't played infinity blade 3.

----------

Sorry to interrupt, but every day I come here looking for news about the new Mac Mini and every day I see every other single update... iphone, ipad... andriod... imac... macbook air...

Darn it! Where's the Mac Mini updates? I'm in the market for one!

so just buy one.

 

[omnimoeish]

Just make a base iMac at $799 with a 20" or so screen and the internals of the i5 Mini. And it would be great of they would stop with thin for thin's sake - go back to the size of the last iMac to have an optical drive.

And for a 12" Macbook with retina - bring it on! I won't be buying one (even if it does come to be) because it'd be too small, but it sure sounds like a neat gadget. But what would happen to the 11" and 13" MBAs? Hard to believe Apple would have a lineup of 11", 12", 13"' and 15".

The 12" MBA I'm sure will have a smaller bezel than the 11" meaning it will be the same size and weight just with a bigger screen so that makes the 11" obsolete. So they probably get rid of the 11" and 13" MBA sizes. At first I was bummed at that thought because I was contemplating getting a 13" MBA when they came out with the refresh, but I'm sure the 13" Macbook Pro retina will still be around and priced right, would negate the need for a 13" Air as well. It's a little stretch in price and weight I suppose. There's a completely different market for laptops over $1,000. People will willy nilly buy a $600-700 HP or whatever for their kid, but over that people get pretty skeptical.

You can get a 13" Macbook Pro retina for $1,199 on education pricing now and I imagine the refresh coming in a couple months will start with 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM which is what I'd need. Yippee, maybe I'll finally go retina!

 

[richwoodrocket]

I want a Retina Mac mini!



Oh wait.

I think the Mac Pro should get retina first, rather than the Mac mini. Maybe that's why the Mac mini refresh is taking so long though.

 

[50voltphantom]

I can totally see them doing away with a clickable trackpad. I've never physically click my Magic Trackpad.

A fanless (or perhaps just a different type of fan technology) notebook? I can believe it. How many of us would've thought that the new Mac Pro would work well with only ONE fan?

As far as the Mac mini and possible low-end iMac; I'm very interested to see what they do here. I strongly believe that the locked-down nature of the 21.5" iMac pushed many buyers to the Mac mini (I know it did for me).

 

[Yoshi Yogurt]

Can we get a date on the Air refresh?

 

[hiptobesquare]

Neat.. So apple can do a lower cost iMac, reason ??

people may not be able to afford a iMac, but they can afford a Macbook pro Retina?.

I don't see that logic.... $1,299 seems ok

Make the iMac Retina, and Apple will probable in in Gold.

There isn't just one mac buyer.

Just because one buyer can afford a MacBook Pro, or a Mac Pro, doesn't mean that they can purchase those units for every task, or that there aren't other customers who pass up an expensive unit because they don't need it.

iPads are fantastic devices, but a full finder, file system, multi-tasking, multi-user, keyboard and mouse platform isn't truly dead yet.

Especially on work desks that aren't full production-heavy high horsepower workstations, and some users who aren't designers, producers, or gamers, but maybe want a little bit more than a tablet device can really offer.

Even a ginormous and >1000$ iMac is is overkill for some of those users, in price, under-utilized performance level, and physical size.

The only thing I don't want to see.. is it kill the Mac Mini. All-In-One is nice in some circumstances, and restrictive in other circumstances.

I'd ideally like to see a nicely diversified desktop lineup. Two iMac types, two Mac Mini types, both under the Mac Pro.

Sub-1000$ iMac AIO and headless Mac Mini. Entry level. Good for budgets, and good for a basic work desk to get online. Just a screen and a keyboard and mouse, or a headless puck that can drive existing one or two existing monitors, a dedicated projector, or a high def TV panel as a monitor to a full computer. (yeah, I know an Apple TV will mirror...)

$1200-2500 iMac AIO and headless Mac Mini. Mid-level. the mainstream machines, right where iMac currently is... plenty of power for most consumers, and most general work desks that aren't heavy production.
this Mac Mini level would have specs better than the entry level, desktop grade processor, fusion drive with perhaps the possibility of a 2.5/3.5" HDD internal bay, and desktop grade RAM more like Mac Pro, more cooling, and at least MacBook Pro like dual/dedicated graphics hardware option, if not a full boat desktop grade GPU if possible, but not solely base laptop-grade integrated graphics, and the capability of at least 2 or 3 high def displays, which iMac has a harder time doing. Something for a power user, but a step down from a full-boat production-heavy Mac Pro. Might make a nice little headless server unit, too, with the RAM, GPU co-opting, and processing power advantages of desktop grade hardware, rather than a laptop-in-a-box.

the sub-1K iMac, and the mid-range Mac Mini would be the new products that don't currently exist in Apple's lineup.

I could see the small iMac looking like a fixed-position iPad-like enclosure on a stand, with a keyboard and mouse. Very slim, very sleek, and elemental. Functional as a full-OS AIO computer, but no frills.

I could see the mid-range Mac Mini being like a half-height Mac Pro cylinder, or a block a little bit bigger than the current device, but finished in the same black-chrome smoked finish.

 

[hiptobesquare]

I think people are forgetting something about laptop fans.

LINT
DUST
WORN BEARINGS requiring fan replacement.

Any laptop with a fan requires cleaning maintenance, some sooner than others.

If you have taken the bottom plate off of a MacBook that has a few 'miles' on it... take a look.

You'll see the dust intake patterns on the inside of the bottom plate. You'll see the accumulated dust on the cables and main logic board.

But you'll have to remove the fans themselves to really see the culprit... those fans take in dusty air from the environment, and the computer attracts that dust electrostatic-ally, and blows that dust through the heat syncs.

When that dust accumulates, it forms a nice warm blanket inside the fan housing and the heat sync, making the computer prone to overheat, no matter how fast the fans spin... and the fans spinning faster just build the blanket faster.

So periodically, someone like me has to take the plate off, extricate the dust, and blow it out, and put it all back together again... and hopefully the thermal damage that has been caused isn't too bad.

Fanless... means a tighter enclosure. thermal syncing to the outer skin as a thermal radiator to the ambient air... means LESS DUST, and less thermal efficiency loss.

As long as it is engineered right in the first place to be thermally efficient, and self-regulating... and people don't have mistaken expectations for a light-duty computer to be a professional heavy-duty workstation or gaming rig... a fanless computer with no moving parts... is a fine thing, and all the less maintenance.

Now, if the operating system and file structure wouldn't get periodically corrupted on SSDs... probably through incomplete write-cycle load-balancing...

No air intake needed through the ports, so the ports could be optionally plugged against debris infiltration until used... no fans to clean, or to whine and fail... no spinning drives that fail to spin, or optical drives that fail to eject...

...then being completely solid-state with no moving parts would truly be sweet. Until the user breaks them anyway... but that is a different matter.

 

[actuallyinaus]

I wish them luck trying to run hardcore games on Iris Pro graphics.

first of all it's not going to be an iris pro as they are only available in the high end i7s, its most likely going to get a HD 4000 series igpu

iris pro is actually quite capable for an igpu, see my benchmark thread here

and when broadwell comes igpu will leap and bound again

 

[michaelsviews]

Yes, and you know why?

No new chips this year -> old chips can run Retina but with a drop in the battery life time (obvious) -> they just can't release a new MBA with less battery life time.

Same with the MBA without a fan and a Retina. The fan never jumps on in my MBA, so why would they remove it?

The only time my fan kicked on was downloading and installing X-Code, and one update don't remember which one it was though. Other than that I get 4 to 5 days of battery life, just wish they'd make a MBA in a 15".

 

[DudeBigalo]

This needs to have support for an external 4K monitor otherwise this laptop will be obsolete before it even hits the market.

 

[benjo765]

fanless poopbook?, like wth are you going to able to do on that? a handbrake encode would make it xplode

TDP is supposed to drop dramatically with the next round of chips. Current MacBook Airs have a 15w Intel Haswell chip - the next lot, Broadwell, will supposedly have a 4.5w variant. Half or less of the heat generation? That'd about do it for fanless.