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Apple Announces 12-Inch Retina MacBook With Revamped Trackpad, Starting at $1,299

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At today's "Spring Forward" media event, Apple announced its much-anticipated ultra thin 12-inch MacBook, with prices starting at $1,299. The new notebook, which features a 12-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2304 x 1440, offers a full Mac experience in the lightest and thinnest Mac form factor to date

macbook.png
The 12-inch MacBook is separate from the company's MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines. It weighs 2 pounds and is 24 percent thinner than the existing MacBook Air at 13.1mm. It's available in three iPhone and iPad-style colors: gold, silver, and space gray.

With the new MacBook, Apple has introduced a redesigned keyboard, featuring a new butterfly mechanism for the keys to make them both more stable and more precise. The edge-to-edge keyboard offers keys with 17 percent more surface area and a redesigned feel.
"Apple has reinvented the notebook with the new MacBook, and at just two pounds and 13.1 mm, it's the thinnest and lightest Mac ever," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Every component of the MacBook reveals a new innovation. From its fanless design, ultra-thin Retina display and full-size keyboard that's 34 percent thinner, to its all-new Force Touch trackpad, versatile USB-C port and breakthrough terraced battery design, the new MacBook is the future of the notebook."
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Apple's new MacBook also includes a completely revamped trackpad, with built-in Force Touch. Force Touch can detect the amount of pressure placed on the trackpad, introducing a whole range of gestures. For example, a hard press using Force Touch brings up a Map in mail, or a Wikipedia entry in Safari, much like right clicking does now. The trackpad also includes haptic feedback, giving users tactile feedback from the trackpad when using it. The trackpad is customizable, letting users choose how much pressure is required to initiate a force press.

The 12-inch MacBook uses an Intel Core-M processor that starts at 1.1GHz with Intel HD 5300 graphics. It has entirely silent operation because it's the first MacBook to use a completely fanless design. Internally, the logic board is 67 percent smaller than the logic board in the MacBook Air, and Apple's designed new custom-shaped batteries for the device to eke out as much battery life as possible.

According to Apple, the new MacBook has an "all-day battery" life at 9 hours of web browsing and 10 hours of iTunes movie playback.

To allow for its ultra thin design, Apple has used a single USB-C port in the MacBook, which combines several functions into a one port: power, USB data transfer, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA capabilities. The MacBook does not use the traditional MagSafe charging method that's available in other MacBooks.

The entry-level MacBook is priced at $1,299 and includes a 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor, 8GB of memory, 256GB of flash storage, and Intel HD graphics 5300. There's also a 1.2GHz version with 8GB of memory and 512GB of flash storage available for $1,599. There will be additional configure-to-order options as well.

The new MacBook will begin shipping on Friday, April 10 through the Apple Online Store and from Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.


Article Link: Apple Announces 12-Inch Retina MacBook With Revamped Trackpad, Starting at $1,299
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/09/apple-new-macbook-2015/
This will be my wife's new MacBook. Her six year old MacBook Pro is just too slow. Great news!

PS
She will be happy. This will be her first Mac that is not a hand-me-down from me.
 
Concerning to me is the SINGLE USB port, which doubles as the charging port. I hope the charger doubles as a powered hub. They should also be raking in the accessory money again with their new port no one uses yet.
 
BrentD said:
Concerning to me is the SINGLE USB port, which doubles as the charging port. I hope the charger doubles as a powered hub. They should also be raking in the accessory money again with their new port no one uses yet.
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Yeah, was hoping the leaks were wrong and we would have got a USB-C port on each side...
 
No ports, more money. Not sold on this. I am hoping the other apple laptops will remain.
 
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Price is within expectations and it ships with a 256GB drive standard. Solid. But how does well that Core M processor perform? Also, what does the keyboard feel like? I'm sure the trackpad is a home run though.

I can't say it's an instant purchase, but I certainly can't wait to try one in a store. :D
 
I wonder if the power cable will have a passthrough so that you can connect other devices while charging it. Also, how do you connect it to other devices, like USB, VGA connections, HDMI, etc. How many adaptors will we need? I work in a school, and we usually reimage them during the summer. We usually do this over ethernet or thunderbolt. Plus, we have kids who use flash drives. It'll take a while to learn how to adapt.
 
ggibson913 said:
No ports, more money. Not sold on this. I am hoping the other apple laptops will remain.
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I'm assuming the other Macs (specifically the current MBAs) are staying as is since this one is "the new MacBook". It's not replacing the others.

But I agree. At that price I'd rather get a 13" rMBP and have my ports plus a separate charger that doesn't get in the way.
 
Bye bye MagSafe :( Probably going to be lots of broken ports now if people trip over your cord.
 
This looks pretty great, especially the black one. Probably best for the ones who just wants casual laptop to go alongside with their desktop computers.
 
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This is soooooo tempting... but I'm still disappointed they didn't do anything with the 15" MBP. :(
 
As a big rMBP fan, and not a fan of the MBA, I have to say this looks really cool.

Agree that we need to see how the processor performs, but it sure LOOKS fantastic.
 
capuzino said:
This looks pretty great, especially the black one. Probably best for the ones who just wants casual laptop to go alongside with their desktop computers.

P.S. For people complaining about the ports; there's standard usb port and thunderbolt port on the other side.
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No, there isn't. There was a headphone port and that was it.
 
Naming

I'm confused. If this isn't replacing the MacBook Air and it's THINNER than the Air, then doesn't the Air kind of lose its meaning?
 
Usb-c

So with USB-C you have to choose Ethernet, vga, mouse, etc or does it connect to some type of dock/brick with more connections. I guess no dual monitors with this.
 
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