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With a Retina you need a good GPU....that's the first hurdle.

It just doesn't seem possible.

GPUs have come a long way since the first retina MBPs were introduced.

Broadwell has a significantly upgraded integrated GPU which should be easily capable of driving a 12" retina display, at a low TDP.
 
Yes but if macbook air will not have Intel, desktop applications will not be supported. So bye bye aperture/final cut pro/games/Yosemite/Logic pro x etc and so many
That's a weird argument. The OSX codebase is maintained to be quickly portable to other architectures. Heck, they've done it twice before. And if they even up using ARM chips as I except, then the majority of the work is already done, as iOS runs on them. Porting the apps will be a minor thing in comparison.
 
yea only if you dont have some work to do or not playing games or video ed etc...just mails, internet, movies...for basic stuff yea can be primary and the only computer..but i dont think there are so many out there

Tens of millions of students use the Air as their workhorse machine. Millions of other people use them as their daily workhorse.
 
Macbook Air can be the primary computer. It is true that for serious editing and development work, one would need to add an external display (easy with Displayport tech and they don't cost so much today) and 2-3TB storage (easy with USB3, now when it is finally there).

I disagree, I used my MBA as my primary computer for over a year for serious dev work. This was mostly backend and low level embedded work (C/C++, Ada, Spark). I can understand the need for a larger canvas if you're doing front end web development, but I've always though of that as pseudo-development anyway. :p

I don't understand the need for 2-3TB of local storage needed, do you not use SVN/GIT servers at work? :confused:
 
i repost the basic judgment in one simple fraze
"Like i said...im referring here to people who don't take the mac on the road so often. Ok i guess i need to put a number...so lets say for those who takes their mac once every 2-3 months"
 
I'd happily sell my 13" Retina Pro for the 12" Air if it had a Retina display. I just love the design of the Air.
 
Just let you know, i have a 13" late 2012 Macbook air, but also i have 15" late 2013 MBP and a 27" iMac so i am very objective here
 
I still use my older 2011 MBA for various things and especially for travelling. The only time I can hear the fan is when I am watching a lengthy video on YouTube.

I did however do a clean install of Mavericks. I'd never ever do an upgrade. Macs don't seem to cope with upgrades very well as they carry across all sorts of junk from the previous OS install.

I think this would probably solve my fan issue but I just don't have the time for a clean install. Other 2011 MBA owners have reported the screaming fan issue after Mavericks upgrade on these forums. I've tried resetting power management to no avail. I keep hoping an update fixes the issue but none has so far.
 
Just let you know, i have a 13" late 2012 Macbook air, but also i have 15" late 2013 MBP and a 27" iMac so i am very objective here

Well, you probably would not get the reaction that you did if you avoided comments like:

"yea only if you dont have some work to do"

There are plenty of people using Macbook Airs as their primary computer to be productive and perform real work. These are working professionals, students, and many others. I am sure there are some folks that absolutely need more power for their work, but it is probably a relatively small fraction of the computer users. I have worked in professional office settings with financial analysts, scientists, engineers, and others for over 30 years. Most folks just don't push their computers very hard.
 
I disagree, I used my MBA as my primary computer for over a year for serious dev work. This was mostly backend and low level embedded work (C/C++, Ada, Spark). I can understand the need for a larger canvas if you're doing front end web development, but I've always though of that as pseudo-development anyway. :p

I don't understand the need for 2-3TB of local storage needed, do you not use SVN/GIT servers at work? :confused:

I have done both. With Air, and it is indeed possible to work with 13 inch, and it works. But there are studies, that more visibility means more productivity, and at least for me it is quite so. There doesn't have to be just Neymar or Facebook in that other visible window.

UI development is "Pseudo development"? :). But I understand your point.
It is many times not done to the extent it should be done. Even basic UI solutions like drag&drop may be left undone and the result is cumbersome, because coders glue things together with some easily found, functionally limited UI libraries instead.

2-3TB gives breathing space to many. Servers… I would love to find a working solution for that but at the office, the wireless file server which I tried felt a bit slow, so I went back to old-fashioned cables for personal archiving. And also because I have a bad habit of taking work to home sometimes and not completely trust to network connections, cloud services and their safety, I haven't gone for that …yet.
 
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Why? Do the keys of you current computer stand too high off your desktop, or what?

What do you think? He wants more portability of course.



They may just do that but they'll have to underclock the CPU to about 100MHz and desolder the GPU completely.

Why? There are iPhones and iPads with a 1.4 GHz, but then again it runs iOS so I'm not sure how it would work on OS X.
 
Not that I'm in the market for a new computer (must have will power!) but this sounds interesting.

My hope is that Apple makes few design changes save for making the bezels thinner and providing a retina display. Hopefully the 12-inch MBA can come in around the weight of the 11-inch. Maybe 2.5 lbs?

Not interested in a macbook air that goes backwards on performance compared to what i have now. My macbook air is my workhorse and only computer and performance is great. It can even handle some heavy image analysis for my research. Wouldn't want to give that up or the ability to run VMs if they went Arm.

I'm curious if the 'no external changes' means no glass in front of the display. I'm probably the only one but I much prefer the silver bezel over the black glass bezels of the pros (I used to own a MBP). I am very sensitive to glare and the glass was always too much for me.
 
It is not going to look radically different. It is still a laptop. It will still be wedged, have a full sized keyboard and such.

The trackpad may be different mechanically, and there is likely to be a fanless broadwell chip inside.

It may be a little thinner, but it can only be as thin as its thickest part, which is the ports. Having a Thunderbolt/USB/Magsafe/Headphone Jack etc.... will determine its size.

Of course Apple could start dumping some ports, but getting rid of USB is unlikely.

The new 12" Macbook Air will definitely have a Retina Display also.

We also know that Apple IS NOT converging the iPad and Macbook Air. So don't expect ANYTHING like the Surface. There will be NO TOUCHSCREEN.

We also know that an ARM based Macbook Air is not coming (or at least not yet). That would have been announced at WWDC because of the coding required to port over apps. It will be Intel Broadwell.
 
This proliferation of model variants hacks back to the bad old days of Apple, before Steve Jobs stood up and drew some quadrants.
 
That's a weird argument. The OSX codebase is maintained to be quickly portable to other architectures. Heck, they've done it twice before. And if they even up using ARM chips as I except, then the majority of the work is already done, as iOS runs on them. Porting the apps will be a minor thing in comparison.

OSX is far unlimited than iOS. So for a desktop class software i need OSX
 
Many people posting in this topic with no awareness of TDP differences between Intel and ARM processors.
 
I would imagine this is contingent on Intel releasing their new chip on time. They have been having trouble with their new14nm process for it that would allow for a fanless design.It is still uncertain whether they can have it ready in time for this years model.
 
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