Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Accessory Manufacturer Claims 15-Inch MacBook Air Coming in April
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Where do you stick those PCIe cards today? I assume you use 17" MBP right now at your studios ? With those PCIe cards attached?
Perhaps you should consider real MacPro setup in your studio, like 100% of the studios of the world? 100%
Even Hackintosh would suit your needs better than some 110 degrees Celcius burning mobile i7 CPU there with 10.000rpm fans?
Why do you have to use 3 monitors with your LAPTOP? Do you carry those monitors around everywhere you go?
Best regards, Xinu
----------
Sometimes N.I.N.J.A generation just makes up stories about great companies and stuff.
If they would discontinue MacPro line, they would have told you so already.
Just like they did with Xserve's they told that in advance. Of course.
Why they would discontinue MacPro's ? Too little profits ? no no no... even if they made losses with MacPro's they will sell them.
And you also can build Hackintosh Box for your work. It is 100% combatible.
They're leading the consumer market away from the concept of a PC. Though I can't say this 100% certain without a single shred of doubt, I don't think Apple is going to nix their Pro line anytime soon. Maybe another 5-6 years, when the iPad finally becomes capable of handling high end pro applications, but now? I kinda doubt it.
External GPU with Thunderbolt would be nice for Gamers and Graphics designers but still lots of work has to be done on the CPU and that is what Xeon is for, they have low TDP and supports tons of RAM which is needed in "pro" work.
You cannot do "pro" work with ARM chips or mobile laptop chips, unless your laptop can handle 192 gigs of RAM and has dual quad core cpu's and that would be just stupid at the moment.
And even with dual i7 CPU's that thing would be slower than 12-core 2011 MacPro
You cannot do "pro" work with ARM chips or mobile laptop chips, unless your laptop can handle 192 gigs of RAM and has dual quad core cpu's and that would be just stupid at the moment.
And even with dual i7 CPU's that thing would be slower than 12-core 2011 MacPro
Now now gentlemen.. we all (should) know by now that holding extensive arguments over internet forums is pointless. Just give it a rest
I don't think this is true because even Acer has come up with an Ultrabook that has a dedicated GPU. (Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3)
So, obviously Apple is going to come up with a slimmer design with a dedicated GPU.
So, obviously Apple is going to come up with a slimmer design with a dedicated GPU.
Anyone got any ideas of how much these will cost?
I'd love it to be cheaper than the 15" MacBook Pro
Best of luck with that...SSDs and ULV CPUs ain't exactly cheap.
That doesn't make you a luddite, it makes you a practical person. While the two are synonymous on these forums, I promise you, real people respect that in the real world where the MacBook Air evangelical are in the minority.
In a decade, yes. Today, no. Tomorrow, no. Five years from now, no.
Don't get your hopes up; the 15" MacBook Air is going to be separate from the 15" MacBook Pro; Airs and Pros fill two different needs.
Right, because clearly everyone's ethernet needs be they wireless or wired all revolve around doing consumer-y stuff like checking e-mail in a hotel and not sending massive files to and from other computers on the same LAN. I swear, you guys can be so unimaginative sometimes.
I'm sorry, I can't take the latter half of your statement seriously.
No. Please try again. This time, be logical.
It's a fair guess. Certainly more fair than the one I quoted above yours.
They can't keep it as powerful by making it thinner and if they are to retain the thickness they have now, then there's no reason to nix the optical drive or the ethernet port. Also, you can't get a USB 2.0 (480Mbps or 0.48Gpbs) Gigabit (1000Mbps or 1.0 Gpbs) Ethernet adapter; the laws of physics don't permit it. Similarly, a Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt adapter would be grossly impractical from a cost standpoint.
Your logic fails around the part where you don't factor in the space and cost constraints of SSD-equipped laptops. A 512GB SSD-equipped laptop costs way more than a 750GB HDD-equipped laptop, and for a lot of people, their MacBook Pro is their only computer; there is no larger iMac or Mac Pro lurking elsewhere.
You likely won't ever connect to the internet itself at over 100Mbps, at which point, everything you say here about needing a Gigabit is laughably wrong. If you cited the need to transfer files from your computer to another one on the same local network, then you'd be getting somewhere with your argument. Again, this is coming from someone who is very pro-Gigabit (or higher) Ethernet.
You clearly have never used a Gigabit Ethernet equipped network to transfer files before. Otherwise you wouldn't say such ignorant things.
$3 for a 2GB thumb drive is still more than $0.10 for a 4.7GB single-layer DVD-R. CDs are even cheaper. Forcing me to pay more to do things that I shouldn't have to spend as much money on is "such a bad thing", though luckily, Apple isn't leaving us out in the cold with regards to disc burning until a 50-pack of 8GB thumb drives is as inexpensive as a 50-pack of single-layer DVD-Rs are today; that or when that kind of bandwidth is literally ubiquitous and (more or less) as inexpensive.
I don't think a 15 in. macbook air will come out this April. This rumor sounds like its leaning towards more to the redesigned/thinner Macbook Pro's (which i hope will really happen). I've been really waiting for a MBP redesign!
It's not leaning in that direction at all. Reread the post! In any event, we had the last design of MBP for six years. Not even four years into this design and you're already hankering for a change? Short attention span much?
(A), because the MBP as it stands today isn't all that bulky, and I am capable of lifting 5.6" that a 15" MacBook Pro weighs. If ever I'm not, the solution won't be a MacBook Air, it will be physical therapy. I want my computer to do things (like burn/watch a DVD internally or run graphically intensive software/games) and be capable of accepting whatever wired connections I so desire, not for it to be so thin that all I can really do with it is marvel at how needlessly thin it is. For how much money these things cost, to say that thinness is what I'm paying for is almost insulting.
No, it's not. Try transferring a large multi-gigabyte file via Wireless N and then do the exact same transfer via Gigabit Ethernet. Also, note how smoother streaming is with the latter than the former. Clearly, you don't have experience with such matters.
I wish more people on this site exercised the degree of logic contained in your statement.
Let's say they remove the Optical drive, that doubles room for ports. Plenty of room for ethernet, since it is built into the chipsets. Even in a 15" air form factor. Keep the SD Card slot and the ethernet port
The Ethernet port is thicker than the optical drive. Nice try though.
You can't "slim down" the MacBook Pro to something akin to the MacBook Air without sacrificing the quad-core non-ULV CPUs, the discrete GPU, or removable RAM. Hence why the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro currently exist as two distinctly different machines today. Nice try though.
You are foolish if you think that Apple will utilize the optical drive bay cavity for more battery life or anything else even remotely useful.
Optical drives don't cost that much at all. Also, nothing has come out to fully supplant the optical disc drive nor optical discs yet. And no, neither the Internet nor USB drives are there yet.
This statement of yours demonstrates to me that you have very little comprehension of what the MacBook Pros look like under the hood (or rather, the bottom panel plate). The optical drive doesn't weigh much at all, nor is it that thick. Nor would it allow for drastically thinner or lighter designs. I know that everyone on here hates the optical drive like it's tax season, but seriously people, it's not inhibiting anywhere near as much as you all foolishly make it out to. As for your assertion for ethernet adapters, good luck finding a USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter; last I checked, they were not only not available, but they were physically impossible too.
Right, because I want one more thing to actively decide whether or not I'll need to bring. Right, because keeping it internal is so inconvenient and inhibits Apple from making the laptop so much lighter. Get real, people!
pfffff
External DVD drive is about same size as dvd covers are?
You are willing to drag around a buch of DVD's but that tiny little external DVD player is too much? Even when the laptop itself, is smaller than before?
Again, no logic at all.. Not at all
well this is pointless anyway because the new MacBook models are already designed and they manufacture those as we speak, and there will not be DVD on those machines and I am so happy about it.
I don't drag DVDs with my laptop, I use my laptop to play/read DVDs that are present at my destination. That and DVD drives that are the size of DVD covers tend to be junk. Also, you have no evidence to support that the next MacBook Pros won't have DVD drives; otherwise, we'd be reading about it on the front page. Good news though, Apple makes a computer that fills your needs and doesn't have that evil evil evil optical drive that did all of those nasty things to you and your family by dutifully playing back those movies that are still on sale at retailers everywhere.
See, this makes you logical, and contrary to what those on these forums will have you think, you are actually in more of a majority in thinking and feeling this way than you will be led to believe. This is why Apple won't be getting rid of the MacBook Pro as we know it today and why the 15" MacBook Air will be just that.
Welcome to forums.macrumors.com, home of "I don't need it, so I don't see any reason why you should" affairs. Most people on here don't believe in the existence of people who are not like them, which sadly give the rest of us Apple fanboys and fangirls a very bad reputation.
Right, because that's cost-effective! You make a terrible troll.
Keep dreamin'.
Luckily, the "you will just have to learn to adapt" doesn't hold any meaning as you don't really have a solid argument to begin with. Also, Thunderbolt needs to catch on, and I mean catch on to the point that FireWire 400 only recently got to, and even then, it still needs to be more widely adopted before people can actually depend on it in the way that you claim Apple sees us doing.
Have you ever used that feature? It's crap and that's on good days. Also, optical disc over WiFi is infinitely slower than it being locally attached. It's slower over any network interface than it being locally attached save for Gigabit Ethernet...uh oh, I probably shouldn't have gone there.
You're right, how silly of those of us 1% who use their internal optical disc drive and who want more out of a computer than a MacBook Air can provide to actually want exactly that in a portable Macintosh. Also, believe it or not, if my own personal polling means anything, your numbers are way off; that 99% is more like 50%.
They won't give you 16GB of RAM on a standard MacBook Air main logic board with this next rev. They likely won't give you 32GB of RAM for another two or three revs. At best, we'll see the next MacBook Pros come with a 16GB option, but the Airs aren't getting that high because they are LOWER-END MACS!
I don't see them killing macbook pro ... there is no reason for!
MacBook Air are not bad and have their advantage in weight, but for CPU and GPU intensiv work they are weak. Or is Apple trying to make me buy an MacPro (which they also didn't show much love) and an MacBook Air?
If they kill pro, I will go with a lenovo they also have a decent build quality.
MacBook Air are not bad and have their advantage in weight, but for CPU and GPU intensiv work they are weak. Or is Apple trying to make me buy an MacPro (which they also didn't show much love) and an MacBook Air?
If they kill pro, I will go with a lenovo they also have a decent build quality.
Looking at the needs and wishlists of some of the people here, I am glad they are not planning on merging the pro and air lines.
Just imagine, to fulfill these needs (assuming they are really legitimate; those people really require so much horsepower), Apple would have to cram those laptops chock full of features, which in turn means that other less "pro" consumers are forced to shell out for hardware they won't really need.
Heck, I have no idea what 90% of the posts in this thread is talking about...
I think a 15' air with 4gb ram, quad-core, longer batt life and better graphics would see fairly strong demand.
Just imagine, to fulfill these needs (assuming they are really legitimate; those people really require so much horsepower), Apple would have to cram those laptops chock full of features, which in turn means that other less "pro" consumers are forced to shell out for hardware they won't really need.
Heck, I have no idea what 90% of the posts in this thread is talking about...
I think a 15' air with 4gb ram, quad-core, longer batt life and better graphics would see fairly strong demand.
Your argument is no different than those asking for the ODD to stay. A relatively minor need that could easily be replicated with an adaptor.
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/03/13/apple-drops-nvidia-kepler-from-large-numbers-of-laptops/
Apple drops Nvidia Kepler from large numbers of laptops
Dark clouds started to gather on the Nvidia Q4/2012 conference call last month, and a rather nervous sounding Jen-Hsun admitted that 28nm was going horribly for the company. This completely validated what we have been saying for months, SemiAccurate moles have been giving a diametrically opposing version of events from the official unicorns and rainbows version. Needless to say, we were really curious about how this supply shortage would play out in Cupertino, or who else would get the short end to satisfy the notoriously supply-chain related humor impaired Apple.
Apple drops Nvidia Kepler from large numbers of laptops
Dark clouds started to gather on the Nvidia Q4/2012 conference call last month, and a rather nervous sounding Jen-Hsun admitted that 28nm was going horribly for the company. This completely validated what we have been saying for months, SemiAccurate moles have been giving a diametrically opposing version of events from the official unicorns and rainbows version. Needless to say, we were really curious about how this supply shortage would play out in Cupertino, or who else would get the short end to satisfy the notoriously supply-chain related humor impaired Apple.
it all depends on how Apple wants to position the device. The same argument can be made for getting rid of the ODD from the MBP - it makes it impracticable to carry around both for those that need both; but Apple may simply decide enough people do not need it and do away with it as a built in feature.
An argument could be made that most people use MBA's for light computing tasks - reading and responding to emails, web surfing, watching videos, etc - and so the lack of a built in external keyboard is not a show stopper; and doing away with it reduces the device's footprint and cost to manufacture.
Again, I am not advocate one position over the other; it all comes down to Apple's vision of the future. They may very well decide they really aren't in the computer business and the Mac is just one more part of the broader entertainment picture and move more towards devices that fit that model. In that context, moving to an iPad style device and away from MBA's and Pros makes sense - as would a merging of iOS with OSX capabilities.
Considering the high end laptops consistently outperform the low end Mac Pro tower, that's not the case. Quad i7 (which can run 8 threads with hyperthreading) is a fast chip and in many cases you need to go to dual CPU to get beyond that.
At this point the ram limits are a bigger issue than CPU (and if this switch happens, ports will be a another bottleneck).
Consistently? I want to see link to a benchmark please...?
And the heat issue.. i7 quad CPU hits over 105 degrees celsius so if you will use it with high-cpu loads all the time, it will die very soon.
Xeon 12-core MacPro has passive heatsinks.
How much noise does new MBP's fans produce if you're pushing the machine to its limits?
Say what you will but 100+ celsius temps for any electrical component means DEATH
The Xserve didn't really get an advance warning. It got EOL'd after not having been updated for quite a long time and Apple offered to sell off remaining stock for a 3 month period.
In the server market, that's not what you call "being told in advance".
If Apple lost money on MacPros, they wouldn't still sell them. At the end of the day, Apple doesn't care about non-profitable ventures, they have shown us that time and again.
As for a hackintosh, that's only good if you don't mind your computer not being quite the 100% workable solution, constantly requiring maintenance and hacks to keep running and up to date, with the potential to break at any time.
Not really what the enterprise market wants, the "pros" if you will.
Xeon processors don't have lower TDP or support more RAM than consumer CPUs. In fact, the only advantage Xeon processors bring to the table are ECC RAM and in only some cases, SMP support. Otherwise, Xeon and consumer Core i7/i5 processors are the same.
I can do "pro" work on a 486. I don't need 192 Gigs of RAM to do "pro" work, or dual and quad core CPUs.
All depends on your profession. Pro means Professional which means "Someone who has a profession". Not all professions require the same specs from their machines, or even computers at all. Might want to not make broad generalizations.
There is no such thing as dual i7 processors. Only the Xeon line-up supports SMP.
Sure, here you go. Obviously results are going to vary on different apps, but a 25% difference in CPU benchmark is pretty significant.
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/
At least the base MP beats the 2.0 ghz MPB in 64 bit mode.
So I guess when I said the top MPB beats the base MP that wasn't really accurate. Looks like ALL the current 15 and 17 inch MBP beat the base MP. As well as the next MP up.